Stayin' Alive
by Griffin Stone
Summary: Four times Keith fought to protect his teammates, and one time the team fought for him. (Part two of the In' Trilogy. Now AU.)
1. Pidge

**A/N: Get ready for some whumps, chaos, near-death experiences, and protective Keith! He ended up ultra protective in this chapter and I'm not sure if he will be that intense in the later chapters. But, if you have read my other fics, you might have noticed how close I make Keith and Pidge.**

 **It's a slight AU in that the injuries are more realistic and something is introduced that will at least be noticed in the later chapters. The italicized "Keith thoughts" thing that shows up later will hopefully be a continuing theme in other chapters.**

 **This might be the most intense thing I've ever written! Which... isn't saying much. I actually tried to be more descriptive with the injuries, but made myself nauseous and had to take it out. So, it's only slightly harsher than my norm.**

 **This chapter was inspired by some artwork from DeviantArt called "So Small," which prompted me to do the whole story. I don't know the artist's name.**

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Exploring new planets so often ended up with the paladins running for their lives that Keith wondered why they even bothered anymore.

"Next time, let's use that BLIP tech you're so proud of," Keith said to Pidge as he sprinted alongside her.

"Or, we can send Lance in first," Pidge suggested back, not missing a step as she hurtled a mass of tree roots.

"No, that's-" Keith paused as he and Pidge broke off to dodge around opposite sides of a tree, "-what got us in this mess in the first place."

"I'm right here!" Lance complained.

"Guys," Shiro cut in. "Focus."

Keith glanced at the black paladin. Namely, his flesh arm. There were large tooth marks in the armor and the armor was dented. Though Shiro wasn't showing signs of pain, Keith knew he had to have been hurting.

"How far are we from the lions?" Hunk cried.

"Two miles, as the cat flies," Coran said.

"It's crow!" protested Lance, who was the one attempting to teach Coran Earth sayings.

"Crow, cat, what's the difference, it's two miles," Coran huffed.

Keith shook his head at Lance's put out expression. "Those things are catching up. We won't make it to the lions in time. You four, keep going, and I'll distract them."

"Keith," Shiro said, catching Keith's arm. "You can't go off by yourself."

"I'll just slow them down and keep out of reach," Keith said. "Don't worry, I'll be right behind you."

Keith shook himself free and veered off before Shiro could protest more. He saw Lance steady Shiro, then Pidge dodged after him.

"What are you doing?" Keith asked as Pidge caught up.

"There's two of them. I'll even up the odds," Pidge said logically.

Keith scowled to show he disapproved, but it wasn't like Pidge would actually leave if he told her to. Besides, she was a fast enough climber, Keith knew she could get up a tree if needed.

"Just be careful," Keith said.

"I could say the same to you." Pidge smirked.

All conversation stopped as, with a massive roar, one of the pursuing creatures burst out of the brush.

As Coran had no name for them, Lance had dubbed them "sabers." They resembled a saber-tooth tiger, at a height twice Shiro's. Their mottled grey fur stood out in the greenery, but had blended well in the rocky den where Lance had accidently come upon them. Their canines were easily three feet long, with serrated edges. Their eyes were a piercing green, with slitted pupils.

Keith lost no time in leaping to the left. "Hey, over here!"

The saber roared and leaped at him, but Keith activated his jetpack and shot away to land on a low branch of a tree. Pidge lunged at it, smacking it upside the face with her bayard. The saber bellowed, then there was an answering roar as the second saber leaped into view.

The second saber was slightly smaller and leaner than the first, leading Keith to believe it was a female and the first was a male.

Keith jumped at the male as it turned toward Pidge. He formed his shield and ran into its face at full speed. It gave a screech and swiped at Keith, but he was already rolling away.

Bouncing to his feet, Keith saw that Pidge was tormenting the female by darting in to poke it, then shooting away.

"Keep it up, Pidge," Keith said, rolling under the male's paw. "Once the others are far enough away, we'll go."

"Got it! Woah!" Pidge yelped as she narrowly spun away from the saber's sharp claws.

"Careful!" Keith scrambled up the male's side, making it spin in a rapid circle, before leaping over its stumpy tail. "Don't take too many risks."

"That's great, coming from you," Pidge snorted.

Keith landed, then realized that the sabers were moving closer together. "Keep them apart!"

"Easier said than done," Pidge said.

She shot her energy whip into the trees and jerked herself up just before the female could step on her. She vaulted over the female, turning it away from the male.

Keith turned to see the male rushing him. He leaped and rolled out of the way, coming to his feet for another attack. Except the male didn't stop his charge, headed right for the female!

Keith ran forward, yelling, "Pidge!"

Pidge, on the other side of the female, couldn't see the male charging. She was on the ground and braced for the female's next attack, when the female leaped sideways. Her face barely had time to register shock, then the male's head collided with her body.

Pidge was thrown backwards, skidding head-over-heels and losing her helmet before somehow stopping in a crouch. The female, who had rushed forward when the male first struck, didn't give her time to recover. She raised a paw and slashed at Pidge, throwing her once more. She crashed to the ground and didn't move.

Rage surged through Keith. His jetpack activated, shooting him over the male who had turned to face him again and landing him on the female's head. Using the head like a springboard, Keith launched himself into a flying leap that landed him near where Pidge laid. Keith spared a moment to glance away from the stunned sabers.

Some of the black armor around Pidge's middle had been torn, and two long gashes were visible. Her hair was tangled from the rolling, and there was a bit of blood on her hairline. Her eyes were closed and her rapid breathing was her only movement.

"Keith! Pidge!" Shiro called over the coms. "What happened?"

"Pidge is down," Keith said, lifting his head as the sabers started to approach again. "And neither of the sabers look ready to give up."

"Lance, go on ahead to the lions and get to Keith and Pidge," Allura said.

"What? Alone? And what about Shiro and Hunk! Shiro's still hurt," Lance protested.

"Hunk and Shiro, climb a tree and keep quiet until Lance can fetch you," Coran said.

"Oh, yeah, brilliant," Hunk said. Grunts from him and Shiro suggested they were climbing, even as Hunk worried. "And what if the sabers decide to come after us?"

"Fight them off, hide, I don't care. Just burn that bridge when you get there!"

Under normal circumstances, Keith would have smiled at Lance's flustered exclamations at Coran's poor interpretation of the saying. But he had to focus on the sabers.

Sensing victory, the sabers approached slowly. As they started to circle in opposite directions, Keith knew he had to move before they could get far.

Keith ran at the female, who reared up for an attack. He dodged to the side, slashing at her side with his sword. Seeing the male move toward Pidge out of the corner of his eye, Keith whipped out his knife and flung it. The knife stabbed into the male's side, bringing it to a screeching halt. The female, untouched by Keith's sword, roared in fury. Keith had to duck quickly out of the way of a swipe of her paws, jabbing up with his sword into the paw.

While the female squealed, Keith dismissed his shield and ran back to Pidge. She hadn't risen, though Keith was relieved to see her eyes crack open. The bleeding on her side was slowing, but he needed to get it covered before trying to move her.

"Keith?" Pidge mumbled.

"Right here. Just hang on."

Keeping an eye on the sabers regrouping, Keith jerked off a glove to press against Pidge's bleeding side. She hissed at the pressure, but didn't try to move away.

The sabers hissed. The male swiped off the knife, and Keith realized it had barely pierced the skin. The female growled and retreated, limping heavily on the injured paw, but the male only looked angrier than ever.

Keith took Pidge's hand and pressed it to the glove. "Keep the glove in place, and don't move!"

Keith was in motion the next second. Reforming the shield, Keith leaped up to charge the saber. The saber lowered its head in a charge. At the last moment, Keith slashed at the saber's face before he threw himself to the side and activated his jetpack.

As Keith had hoped, the saber roared at the attack and turned away from Pidge. Keith half-landed against the side of a tree and kicked off again. The saber couldn't stop in time and crashed into the tree with such force that the trunk cracked.

"Lance, status!" Keith said.

"I'm almost… there," Lance panted. "Just… just hold on... for a few... more minutes."

"Got it."

The saber recovered, ending the conversation. Stepping away from the now-leaning tree, the beast growled.

"Just go away," Keith told it, swinging his sword.

The saber didn't listen, instead, pouncing at Keith. He dodged away and rushed in to attack its side, but the saber sprang sideways. The fight continued for several more minutes. Neither could touch the other, but Keith was rapidly getting tired. Luckily, the female had stayed away, or Keith would have been doomed.

Rolling away from the saber's claws, Keith found himself near Pidge. She was sitting up now, with a hand clamped to her side.

"Can you walk?" Keith asked quickly.

Pidge gave a pained shrug. Keith nodded. Even if she could, there was no way she could run fast enough to escape in her condition.

The saber was charging again, and Keith ran to intercept it. He was exhausted from the fight, but all he could think of was protecting Pidge.

The saber opened its mouth, and Keith hurriedly formed his shield and jammed it under the canines into it's gaping maw. The saber tried to bite down, only to find the shield forcing its mouth to stay open.

For a moment, neither moved. The saber appeared too stunned to try anything, and Keith was just realizing how bad of a situation he had just put himself in. If he dismissed the shield now, his arm would be crushed. Would the shield even hold against the saber's strength?

A chilling _crack_ answered Keith's question. A series of cracks had appeared in the shield's surface. He swung up his sword, hoping the saber would flinch away and allow him to get free.

Instead, the saber's head jerked up, hauling Keith a foot off the ground. He hurriedly dismissed the shield, the possibility of being shaken more concerning than his arm. He fell, arm slipping free in time to avoid being crushed, but then the saber's paw flashed up and there's no way to dodge it.

The paw caught Keith in the middle. While he didn't think the claws had pierced the armor, Keith's breath was still forced from his lungs and he was flung twenty feet before crashing to the ground. He rolled several times before coming to an abrupt halt against a tree. Darkness flickered across Keith's vision, but he shook it off and struggled to stand. His right leg wouldn't move right, but he didn't have time to check why.

The saber was already running. It leaped at Keith, jaws open wide to finish him off. Keith yelped, drawing up his sword in front of him in a feeble attempt to scare it off.

Then the glowing green of an energy whip shot in from the side. It smacked the saber in the face, causing it to stagger, then was jerked back to snag around the canines.

Keith flipped onto his stomach. He winced at the pain in his middle, but thought for himself vanished as soon as he saw Pidge.

She was somehow standing, and had shot her energy whip to defend Keith. She was braced backwards, but Keith knew that if the saber hadn't been startled to a halt, she would have been dragged off her feet in an instant. As it was, the strain of standing was evident on her face. Her whole body was shaking and if the growing stain of dark on her middle was any indication, her wound was still bleeding.

"Pidge! Let-"

Exactly what Keith was afraid to happen, happened. The saber, whether or not it knew what had hit it, didn't like what had wrapped around its canines. It gave a massive jerk of its head. Pidge was yanked straight off her feet and into the air.

She crashed into a tree with a painful _thud_ , her whole body jerking against the force. Her eyelids fluttered and she flopped bonelessly to the ground. She wasn't moving, Keith couldn't tell if she was breathing from her collapsed position.

The saber got the brilliant idea to go after the motionless paladin. Giving a low snarl, it took a step closer to Pidge.

Well, that did it.

An almost inhuman scream of rage ripped out of Keith's throat, so loud that the coms gave a squeal of feedback and the others gave startled yelps.

He didn't care about his hard to catch breath, not his aching sides, not the burning in his leg, not the tiredness dragging at his limbs. Pidge was _hurt_ and _defenseless_ , and that _thing_ was going after her?

Big mistake.

Keith was on his feet in a second, throwing himself at the saber. It barely felt the impact, but it did feel the slash on its shoulder. Roaring, the saber turned to face Keith once again.

So, Pidge was out of immediate danger, but Keith also knew, even with the adrenaline of anger, he still couldn't beat the saber. He rapidly backed away, clumsy on a suddenly awkward right leg. He swung his sword to keep the saber at bay, as he looked frantically around for something he could use.

His eyes fell on the cracked tree. It was leaning and badly damaged. If he timed it right…

Keith ran off to the side in a lurching skip-hop to compensate for his leg. The saber crouched and leaped. Keith tried to spin away, but he wasn't quick enough and the saber knocked him on his back.

Pinned down with a massive paw on his chest, Keith still wasn't about to quit. His sword flashed up and around. The saber roared and fell back, now missing half of its left canine.

Keith rolled to his feet and rushed for the tree. He all but ran into the trunk, grabbing onto it for support and twisting around.

The saber was raging mad by then. It barreled toward Keith, who had seconds to act. He spun on his heel, grabbed his sword in both hands, and swung it with all the strength he had into the trunk.

The sword sliced through the trunk. The whole tree shuddered and creaked. It began to fall toward Keith.

Keith didn't even bother to look back. Activating his jetpack, Keith kicked off to the left. As he landed and tumbled to a stop, there was a startled screech and a crash. Keith scrambled to his feet, in case it tried to attack again.

The saber was off to the side, having avoided most of the tree. But it had a paw pinned, and it was growling madly as it tried to free itself. The female bounded forward, and the pair managed to shove the tree away.

The male saber stood, gave a weak growl in Keith's direction, then turned away. The pair leaned against each other, both favoring opposite paws, and limped away.

Dismissing the sabers now that they were gone, Keith turned to Pidge. She still hadn't moved.

He burst into a sprint, only for his legs to give out after a dozen steps. He fell to his knees, then collapsed full onto his stomach, arms flinging out in a sprawl. His sword flew out of his grasp, vanishing in a blink of light that Keith barely registered as he dragged himself to his elbows.

She wasn't moving. Her face was slack. The blood on her hairline had only increased. Was she even _breathing?_ He couldn't look, he was too afraid.

"I'm in… Blue!" Lance's voice broke Keith out of his shock. "How… How's you two?"

Keith couldn't even answer. His hands pressed against Pidge's side, feeling too much blood, but she was breathing!

"Keith? Keith, what's… happening?!" Lance demanded breathlessly.

"It's Pidge, Pidge is down," Keith panted out, not caring that was all that he had told them the first time.

Keith grabbed Pidge in his free arm, scooping her to his chest. Her hand kneaded weakly against his armor. Her ragged, shaky breaths puffed against his neck. Her sides were warm and sticky, and he could barely bring himself to look.

The wound had gotten bigger. No matter how hard he pressed, he just couldn't….

"K-Keith?" Pidge murmured.

"I'm here, I'm here," Keith said frantically. "Lance, hurry!"

The paladins started to talk loudly, Keith's terrified tone bringing everyone's concern to flat out terror. Keith yelled at them _to be quiet,_ Pidge was talking again.

"I'm… tired," Pidge said quietly. "I… I, uh, didn't… think that through… you know?"

"It's okay, Pidge," Keith soothed. "Just… just open your eyes for me, okay?"

"I can't…"

Pidge shuddered, and Keith had to wonder what damage had been done below the surface. Her eyes still weren't open, and the little motions of her hands were slowing.

"Pidge? Pidge, open your eyes."

Keith's heart about stopped when Pidge didn't even respond. He hugged her closer, desperate for some sign of life.

"Pidge, come on. Don't leave me, Pidge. Just hang in there. Lance is almost here. Pidge? Pidge, stay with me."

Keith's voice fell into a moaning croon as Pidge remained silent, begging, _pleading_ for her to wake up. It felt like hours, but was barely minutes, when there was a rush of wind and a crash. Keith still couldn't raise his head.

Hands on his shoulders finally got him moving. He looked blearily up, there was a fuzzy blue figure above him.

Lance.

It took a second to register the shaking and yelling he was receiving. He pulled back, giving Lance a good look at Pidge and himself. Lance froze, voice ending with a shocked choke.

And then Lance was in motion. Scooping up Pidge himself, he ran for Blue. Startled by Pidge's sudden absence, Keith staggered to his feet. He wobbled over to Blue, barely registering the frozen trees snapped in half to make room for the lion.

Lance was inside with Pidge, calling desperately to the others. Keith struggled to make out the words as he slumped for the cockpit.

"...three pods. She's real bad, and he doesn't look so good. Hunk and Shiro, get into a clear spot and be ready! We'll grab you on the way, but there won't be time to stop!

Keith collapsed in the cockpit with a clank of armor. He reached for Pidge, needing to feel her presence. Luckily, Lance understood and laid Pidge back in his arms. A wad of cloth was pressed into his hand and something wrapped quickly around his leg. Lance was doing that thing with the shoulders again, and Keith realized that he's talking but his voice kept fading.

"...press against the wound... to not move... you even walk in here."

Then Lance's voice was gone, and they were moving. Keith tucked Pidge closer and dropped his head to listen to her hoarse breathing. Her face was pale _-too pale-_ under Blue's lights, so Keith closed his eyes.

"We're safe," Keith whispered to Pidge. "Lance's got us, we're going back to the Castle, just hang in there."

The flight seemed to take seconds, then someone grabbed Pidge. Keith moaned in protest, and felt hands under his arms helping him stand. Opening his eyes, he saw Pidge being carried away by Coran and that prompted Keith to move. Lance -he was still there, holding him upright- told him to slow down, but Keith pushed himself to keep up until they reached the pod room.

Lance tugged Keith in the direction of an empty pod - _why were there three? Only Pidge and Shiro needed one_ \- but Keith wouldn't let him. He dragged Lance along with him to where Coran and Allura were removing Pidge's armor.

"Lance… pod," Allura said, voice fuzzy to Keith.

"...tried, but he…"

"I'll hold… get Shiro…"

Keith blinked, startled when Lance released him over to Coran. He heard Lance call to someone, but had forgotten the blue paladin in the next second.

"Come on… hop into a pod," Coran said to Keith.

"No," Keith mumbled. _Why did they keep trying to get him into a pod?_ "Pidge."

Allura spoke again, and Keith concentrated on her words. "I've got her. She will be fine, Keith. Listen to Coran."

Keith nodded, having no intent in getting into a pod. Yeah, his chest hurt, but he'd been hit harder before. Coran moved toward another pod, but Keith planted his feet. Well, foot. He couldn't really feel the right one any more. _Was that bad?_

Shiro was suddenly in front of him, taking him from Coran like it was "pass Keith around" day or something. Keith just wanted to be left alone, but _they wouldn't listen!_

"Pod," Keith muttered, eyes trailing toward Shiro's injured arm. "You need a pod."

"And so do you," Shiro said gently.

Keith shook his head, the motion dizzying him and causing him to lose focus on the others' words again.

"Really out...

"... wobbly...? … fighting…"

"He… pod."

"Maybe… lift him?"

"...kicks, that will…"

"Drag?"

"Really? ...worse."

"I… knock him… that work?"

"No, Lance... "

"...him over…"

"Still… bad idea."

Keith's frame shook. He slumped against Shiro, but the action only spurned the black paladin to try and move him again. Keith jolted back to himself, kicking out.

"... offer still stands."

Keith whipped his head up to glare at Lance. Was he really wanting to _knock him out?_ Lance had an impish grin, but his eyes were just so worried…. Keith looked at the others, and found their expressions mirrored Lance's.

 _Why was everyone worried?_

Keith finally decided to see why his leg felt so strange. If nothing else, it was a distraction from everyone's worry. He dropped his head.

His armor was… bloody. A bit around his middle, but mainly around the right leg. It ran down the armor to pool under his foot. _Was all that Pidge's?_ He strained to remembered which side he had held Pidge, but found his train of thought disappearing as quickly as the others' voices.

"Pidge… that much…."

"Quiz… coming from…!"

Keith's other leg suddenly felt as numb as the other. Both legs collapsed out from under him. Hands grabbed at him, voices rose in panic, his feet were swept into the air…

And then Keith found his eyes blinking open to the transparent blue of a pod. He had about two seconds of calm and mild confusion before his full-blown panic returned.

Keith stumbled forward, reaching out as the pod's front opened. His legs gave out within seconds, but arms swept out and caught him.

"Easy, Keith," Shiro said, the direction of his voice leading Keith to realize that Shiro had been the one to catch him. "Guys, he's up!"

Footsteps clattered over, and Keith forced himself to straighten as the others approached. Coran in front, with Lance right behind. Hunk and Allura stood from where they sat in front of another pod to come closer.

Between them, was Pidge. She was back in her normal clothes and had no signs of her injuries, but seeing her moving around still gave Keith a surge of panic.

"Pidge!"

Keith tried to shove away from Shiro to go to Pidge, but his arms were too weak to do so successfully. Shiro just wrapped his arms around the teen.

"I said to take it easy," Shiro chided.

Keith gave him a confused look. "What about Pidge? Why isn't she still in the pod?"

Pidge cocked an eyebrow. "I'd say a day in the pod was long enough."

"What?"

Pidge lowered herself to sit beside Keith, so Keith let Shiro guide him to the ground as well. He was still baffled about the day.

"What happened?" Keith asked, then remembered something. He looked up and leveled a glare at Lance. "You knocked me out."

Lance raised his hands defensively. "It was only an offer! I didn't actually do anything!"

"You passed out on your own," Shiro added.

"See?"

Keith ignored Lance's statement and asked Shiro, "I was out for a day?"

"Almost two days," Allura corrected. "After you fell unconscious, we put you into a pod."

"Why?"

Everyone looked at Keith. He shifted, uncomfortable under their stares.

"Really? Do you really not-" Shiro broke off to point. "Hunk, grab the armor."

Pidge started to explain. "I had a bad couple of cuts on my side and a concussion. It was mostly the shock wearing off that made me pass out. But, you…"

"You lost too much blood," Lance said seriously. "I saw the wound, but the armor hid how bad it was. I assumed it was Pidge's blood, since you were still moving around. You should have said something, but _no,_ you had to go and bleed all over the floor and pass out first."

"Blood? I didn't get cut," Keith said, confused. "Maybe broke or cracked some ribs-"

"One broken and three cracked," Coran supplied. "Not to mention your left arm had a bad sprain and your right leg came close to dislocation."

Keith blinked. That explained why he had had a hard time walking.

Then Hunk returned with Keith's leg armor. It was… a mess. The armor had three huge gashes in it, straight through the armor and so long that it was inches from being ripped into four pieces.

Well. Maybe the saber's claws _had_ reached him.

"Keith," Shiro said. "That's what your leg armor looked like. Your leg was so badly cut up, we were afraid the pod wouldn't even be able to save it."

Keith looked down, just noticing the the right pantleg of the jumpsuit had been cut away. His legs were normally rather thin, but the right leg seemed kind of shriveled now. The skin was discolored in three ragged lines.

"Um…" Keith raised his head. "I didn't notice."

"Didn't-" Lance dropped his head into his hands and took several breaths before wiping his face of emotion and said, "I shouldn't really be that surprised. Keith, how are you even still alive?"

Everyone burst into giggles. Even Keith and, eventually, Lance. It had been a stressful couple of days.

"Keith," Shiro finally said when they had calmed down. "I get that you feel the need to protect your teammates -we all do- but don't kill yourself in doing so. We've all got each other's backs. You understand?"

"I get it," Keith said.

"Uh-huh." Hunk nodded sagely. "You got it until the next time one of us is in danger."

Keith didn't answer; he didn't really need to. Everyone knew what Hunk said was true. No one bothered to continue the conversation, instead Keith and Pidge were helped back up.

Keith gave a hiss when he put pressure on his right leg. Pidge popped up beside him, somehow inserting herself between his right arm and body. She smugly grabbed his arm and put it over her shoulder so that she was easing the weight on his leg. Keith shook his head but didn't bother protesting, instead letting Pidge help support him as the team headed out of the pod room.

It hurt to walk and the day of the fight had been terrifying, but it was a small price to pay for Pidge's safety. Keith knew he would do it again -for Pidge or any of the others- in a heartbeat.

* * *

 **A/N: And he will. Five more times before this story has ended.**

 **Up next: (Will be familiar to those who read the original Lance chapter in Takin' Care) When the team is ambushed and Lance is injured, Keith finds himself hard-pressed to keep the team sharpshooter in action.**


	2. Lance

**A/N: I was looking up stuff about the lions, when I found out that only Blue and Green are canonly referred to as girls. The other three are actually considered boys by the paladins.**

 **Last chapter was overly protective Keith. This one is like... overly angsty Keith. He talks too much, I don't know, this chapter felt forced, anyway. I promise to stop trying for angsty talks with Keith for at least two more chapters.**

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Keith was starting to get really tired of ambushes. Doing the ambushing was alright -he still preferred rushing right in- but being the one ambushed was downright frustrating.

The team had been investigating a Galra outpost that had seemed abandoned at first, but sentries had come bursting out as soon as they were within a hundred feet.

Keith kept his head low and shield cocked behind him to ward off any incoming shots as he sprinted head-long through the trees. He kept his eyes on his teammates running along the basically non-existent path that they had been following before Galra sentries had so rudely rushed them.

"Why didn't your scanners spot them?" Lance demanded of Pidge.

The smaller paladin shrugged, surprisingly unconcerned about the chase. "They must have been dormant."

"Well, isn't that-" Lance broke off as he stumbled over a branch laid across the path, "-just peachy!"

"Actually, it is good," Pidge informed him.

"How?!" Lance yelped.

Keith glanced at Lance, noticing a higher note in his voice. His eyes narrowed when he realized Lance's gait had become uneven. He was favoring his left foot a bit.

He had to slow the sentries.

Grinding to an abrupt halt, Keith spun and darted back the way he had come, missing Pidge's explanation. The sentries were about a hundred feet from the paladins, but they were getting closer.

Keith ran alongside the edge of the path. A few sentries paused and started to turn, then Keith was leaping into the middle of them. A few quick slashes of his sword, and a half dozen fell. Keith rapidly moved out of the mass of confused sentries and took off after his teammates again. The sentries would take a few seconds to regroup.

As Keith ran, he gave his body a quick assessment. None of the sentries had touched him, he had been too fast. But he found his own gait changing to something like Lance's, but with a bit more of a gallop motion.

Keith grimaced. The incident with the sabers a month before was still making itself known. Despite the healing pod, following therapy, and a special brace, his right leg was still showing signs of damage. Longer bouts of running or general exertion always made the leg shaky. To make up for it, he had adopted the galloping style of running that was _almost_ as fast as before.

As Keith rejoined the others, Shiro glanced in his direction. He could see the adjusted gait, Keith knew, but there was nothing he -or anyone- could do.

Keith switched his attention to Lance. To his surprise, Lance had gone back to running normally. His face was clenched in what could have been concentration, but was probably pain.

Keith was ready to say something, when laser blasts shot over their heads. Keith instinctively ducked, and the others stumbled to a halt with their shields turned down the path.

Fire from behind made Keith jump, but he quickly recognized the blasts as Hunk's. He glanced back to see the rocky outcrop where Hunk had originally stayed behind as backup.

With Hunk covering them, the paladins were able to duck behind the pile of stones Pidge's height. Keith stayed in the trees, not wanting to risk crossing the open path, but he didn't miss the way Lance grabbed a rock to give his leg a break.

The sentries slowed their approach and stopped firing, though their guns were ready to shoot. Pidge and Lance summoned their bayard to fight, and Shiro's arm began to glow purple. Shiro glanced over his shoulder, then at Lance.

"You're hurt. Get back to your lion," Shiro said.

"Huh?" Lance said innocently. "No, it's fine."

Keith rolled his eyes. _Sure, he was._ He just limped because it was fun.

"You can cover us better from the air. No more argument," Shiro said.

Lance looked ready to protest, but Shiro halted any by standing. Hunk swung out into the open, his cannon already firing. Shiro nodded to Pidge, and both darted into the open from opposite directions. Keith raised his blade and ran to join them, hearing Hunk promise to cover Lance.

Keith ducked and dodged away as the sentries turned their guns into swords for the close combat. He sliced a sentry in half, then darted back into the forest's protection.

Keith's breath caught. There must have been another patrol nearby, because the number of sentries had doubled! They had surrounded the other three paladins, who had formed a triangle with their backs to each other.

Keith rushed back into the fight. He would draw out a couple sentries, destroy them, and then repeat. But he was still too far away when a sentry came up behind Shiro when the black paladin was briefly distracted, its sword raising. Keith opened his mouth to yell a warning, when there was a distant shot.

The sentry froze, a small hole suddenly in the middle of its forehead. Shiro spun around, but the sentry toppled over. Shiro glanced over his shoulder with a fond smile, and Keith followed his gaze to see Lance crouched on a hilltop.

Keith rolled his eyes - _he didn't even get under cover_ \- and turned away from the fight. The three could handle the sentries left; he was more concerned over the unprotected Lance in a forest that Keith now knew could hold more sentries hidden from sight.

Keith wove through the trees, keeping an eye out for any more sentries. When he was nearly to Lance's position and had seen nothing of concern, he slowed to a stop. He looked back, afraid he had abandoned the others too soon.

Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge were doing well, though. Shiro and Pidge were battling the last half dozen sentries, and Hunk was scanning the trees for more.

A sniper shot took out one of the sentries. Shiro gave a half-amused, half-exasperated smile in the direction Lance had settled. In the next second, his expression turned to horror.

A pained scream made Keith spin around and start running for Lance again. In seconds, he found a scene that made his heart leap to his throat.

Lance was kneeling on the hilltop, bayard held loosely in his left hand. His shield was gone, in favor of his right hand pressed to his opposite arm. He was staring wide-eyed up at the sentry currently with its gun in his face.

Without slowing, Keith let loose a wild yell of anger. The sentry twitched and started to turn, then Keith's sword slashed through its middle. It fell into a heap of sparking metal, which Keith ignored as he turned to Lance.

"Are you alright?" Keith asked, panting a bit from the quick dash.

"Y-yeah." Lance staggered to his feet without letting go of his arm. "How's the others?"

Keith glanced down the hill, and saw that the last of the sentries had been taken care of. The other paladins were headed for them. His eyes moved up, then widened as he caught sight of more of the robots.

"They are safe and coming this way, but there are more sentries coming, too."

"We have to get to the lions," Lance said.

"Can you make it?" Keith asked.

"Try to keep up, mullet," Lance scoffed.

Keith cocked an eyebrow as Lance turned and began to run. He was pretty sure Lance had been shot, but it must have just been a graze. Keith ran after Lance and kept pace with him, noting that the limp had become more pronounced.

Before he could wonder too much, the crouched lions came into view. The boys veered off to their respective lions, then Keith heard Shiro call out from behind them.

"Are you two alright?"

"I'm good!" Keith responded, glancing at Lance.

The blue paladin raised his right hand in a brief wave without saying anything. Keith's eyes narrowed, catching how Lance stumbled a bit upon reaching Blue's mouth. Lance didn't say anything about being shot, so Keith decided to not say anything, either.

Keith climbed to Red's cockpit and sat. He gave an automatic sigh of relief, as flying didn't bother his leg. Red rumbled and took off. He hovered over the other lions, and Keith watched as Black, Green, and Yellow followed. Blue didn't move.

"Are you coming, Lance?" Keith asked. When he got no response, he felt a surge of panic. "Lance!"

"He turned off his coms. Hold on a second." Pidge mumbled to herself for a moment, then said, "There!"

"Lance?" Shiro asked.

Lance didn't respond, but Blue finally stood and launched. Keith angled Red to keep an eye on Blue, and saw she was drifting to the left. Yellow's head turned, then Hunk's worried voice came across the coms.

"Lance, what's happening?"

Keith knew that Lance would insist he was fine, so he said, "He was shot."

"What?!" Hunk cried in a panic.

"I'm fine." A slight waver in Lance's voice betrayed his pain.

"Galra fighters incoming!" Pidge alerted them, forcing Keith's attention away from Blue.

There was a couple of large cruisers in addition to the usual mass of fighters. Shiro divided Keith with Hunk to go after one cruiser, then he and Pidge went after the other. Lance was ordered to stay back, but only gave a grunt.

Keith glanced at Blue to make sure Lance wouldn't join, then Red shot after Yellow. The larger lion smashed into the cruiser's hull, while Red shot blasts into the ship.

Red had broken through halfway through one of the cruiser's wings, when a jolt ran through him. Keith was thrown forward, and had to brace himself before he was smashed into the console. He wretched Red around, and realized the fighters had circled around Red. Giving a growl that was echoed by Red, Keith thrust the controls forward, blasting a clump of fighters to bits.

Hunk yelled as Yellow was struck, and Keith moved Red to cover his back. A quick glance showed Pidge and Shiro to be having the same issue.

"Shiro…" Keith said.

"I see it, I see it." Black's head swung around, blasting down fighters.

This was where Lance normally jumped in. He was efficient at taking down the small fighters, leaving room for the others to go after the bigger ships. But with Lance down…

Before Keith could continue the thought, Lance's subdued voice came across the coms.

"You guys… never watch your backs…."

Blue surged to life with a roar. She sped forward, mouth opening with a series of precision shots that cut through the fighters' numbers. But Keith could hear the ragged rasp to Lance's breathing, and knew his condition had worsened.

"Pidge, what's Lance's vitals look like?" Keith asked, even as he pulled Red closer to Blue's position.

"A little high, but that's normal," Pidge said.

"What's wrong, Keith?" Shiro asked, turning Black back around now that Lance had their backs.

"I don't know." Red shot over Blue, forming his jaw blade to take out a couple fighters getting ready to dive down on Blue. "Lance, stand down!"

Lance didn't respond, but Blue was still firing. Keith whipped Red's head around to snap up a fighter flying too close, then tossed it away.

"I'll cover Lance, and he'll cover you," Keith said. "Just hurry!"

Black bobbed his head, then spun around to renew his attack on the ship. Green zipped up to begin slashing the sides of the ship. After a moment, Yellow turned back and attacked the cruiser more fiercely than ever.

"Lance! Lance, can you hear me?" Keith asked, hovering Red over Blue. When he got no response yet again, he huffed. "Lance, you're injured! You have to get out of here!"

Blue resolutely continued to fire. Lance's breathing had steadied out, but Keith had a sense it was more to do with concentration than the pain easing.

Since Lance obviously wasn't going to back off, Keith turned his sole focus on watching Lance's back. He didn't normally need it, but keeping an eye on his surroundings had obviously slipped his mind.

Fighters buzzed around behind Blue, probably sensing his lack of attention. Keith maneuvered Red back-and-forth, blasting the fighters before they could strike.

"This cruiser is down!" Hunk said after a few minutes.

"Almost done here," Shiro said.

Keith grunted. There were _way_ more fighters than when it had first seemed, and it was getting hard to keep up.

As Red twisted to track a pair of fighters, a ragged scream tore across the coms. _Lance!_

Red whipped around. Blue was pulling out of a spin, head down and back arched. From the groans over the com, Blue was mirroring her pilot's pain.

Keith yelled in anger and thrust his controls forward. Red roared, then a powerful, white-hot beam shot out of her mouth. Black and Green veered off as Red swung the beam around, cutting the cruiser -and quite a few fighters- in half.

Yellow turned toward them, then Hunk was yelling. "Lance!"

Pidge yelped, then spoke frantically, "Lance, your vitals are all over! Tell me what's happening!"

Lance's only response was a groan. Keith circled Red around Blue, daring the remaining fighters to try something.

"Shiro, something's wrong," Pidge rambled. "His blood pressure's dropping faster than Yellow in water, but his heart is racing. He's going into shock!"

A set of fighters formed up near Blue, almost out out Keith's sight, but not quite. He whipped Red around and destroyed them, but not before a few got shots off. Keith jerked Red down, but not fast enough. Hunk gave a yell, and when Keith turned Red, he saw Yellow shielding Blue.

"Guys?" Lance whispered, sounding weak and - _he had to be imagining it_ \- scared. "I c-can't… I can't f-feel my a-arm."

"Hang in there, Lance," Hunk soothed. Yellow's massive paws gently grabbed Blue and began to pull her. "Let's get you back to the Castle."

With Blue covered, Keith turned back to the few fighters still moving. Red shot forward before Black or Green could follow, blasting down fighters steadily.

"I need to see Lance," Pidge murmured. A moment later, she gave a gasp. "Lance, look at me."

As Red finished off the last fighter and turned toward the other lions, Keith pulled up visuals of the other paladins. Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro were in varying stages of panic and worry. When he saw Lance, Keith could feel his expression mirroring theirs.

Lance was extremely pale, and lines of sweat ran down his face. His eyelids drooped sluggishly, and each blink seemed to take a massive amount of effort. His chest armor was missing, probably torn off in an attempt to make his breathing easier.

"Lance, listen close," Pidge said, sounding angry but Keith knew she was just afraid. "You have to stay awake, you got that? Stay awake!"

"I d-don't…" Lance paused as if in consideration over the next breath before finishing, "...know."

Keith really didn't mean to yell at Lance. Lance just looked so limp and tired, the complete opposite of his normal, obnoxiously bubbly self. It scared Keith to his core to see a teammate in such a state.

So, he kind of spouted words more fiercely than he intended.

"Aw, quiznak, Lance! Keep your head in the game!"

Shiro scowled and warningly said his name, but Lance actually smiled and gave a weak laugh. "Okay… s-since you a… asked so n-nicely."

"That's it," Pidge said, eyes flickering as she likely tracked Lance's vitals. "Just breathe. We'll be back to the Castle soon."

Keith glanced up. The Castle had been waiting out of sight nearly ten minutes' flight away. Allura must have been alerted, because the Castle was nearly upon them.

Lance suddenly gave a cry of pain, bringing Keith's eyes back to him. The blue paladin was arched over in his seat, partially moving his face out of sight. He fell back a moment later, teeth grit and breath coming in pained huffs.

"Lance, listen to me, it's okay," Hunk said soothingly. Keith hadn't realized that he had started talking, but Lance seemed to calm a bit.

Lance gave a tiny nod, and gave a visible effort in taking another breath. He let it out slowly -albeit shakily- under Hunk's calm instructions.

"That's it," Keith murmured, glancing up to the nearing Castle. "Twenty ticks, and we'll have you in a pod."

A ragged stutter of a breath silenced the coms. Lance's eyes slid shut and didn't open. Keith was ready to yell again, but Pidge beat him to it.

"Lance? Lance, breath with me! Lance!"

A single eye opened, and Lance gave a breathy whisper. "I'm… sorry."

"Lance, don't you-" Keith cut himself off as Lance's eye fell closed again and he slumped forward. "Lance!"

* * *

Keith pounded down the halls. His brace squeaked in protest at each jarring step, but he couldn't slow. Lance had to be okay, he had to!

Keith came to a quick halt by way of slamming into the wall as the hall turned. Shaking himself, he darted into Yellow's hanger, where Hunk had been bringing Blue. The blue lion had her jaw open, and Keith saw Hunk disappearing inside. Keith darted after Hunk, coming to an abrupt halt with a gasp.

Hunk had just removed Lance's helmet, and his expression was filling with horror. And he was standing on Lance's right side, so he couldn't see the injury. Keith almost didn't at first.

The small, neat hole in the black underarmor seemed so innocent at first. Until Keith saw the blood pooled beside the seat. Lance's chest armor, spattered with red, was tossed to the side. There was too much blood for one little wound.

Footsteps clattered behind Keith, and he turned blankly to see the other paladins enter. Like Keith, they came to a quick stop at the sight of Lance.

"I knew he had been hit, but…" Keith couldn't finish.

Hunk all but threw Lance's helmet away. He gently scooped up the blue paladin, wincing when Lance gave a groan.

"I know, man, I know." Hunk turned

Pidge gasped, hand coming to her mouth, as she must have spotted the reason for Lance's rapid decline at the same time as Keith. There was a second hole in Lance's side; that's where the blood was coming from.

Hunk hurried outside Blue, to the two Alteans just entering the hanger. They froze in horror, then Coran snapped to attention.

"To the cryo-pods," he said quickly, urgently.

Hunk nodded and rushed by without stopping. Everyone else followed behind, tersely holding their own breath with each pause of Lance's gasping ones.

The run for the pod room took only a few minutes, but it felt like eternity for Keith. Allura lost no time in preparing a pod. Pidge ran to a console to monitor Lance, while Shiro and Coran carefully removed Lance's armor. Hunk's hold didn't loosen, as if he was afraid letting go would allow his fragile hold on life to vanish. Not knowing what else to do, Keith took Lance's discarded armor to pile on a table, silently pleading with Lance to be okay.

Finally, Lance was ready for the pod. Hunk carefully propped Lance inside. He stepped back, face clenched in worry, as Allura closed up the pod.

Keith joined the others as they gathered around the pod. He counted the seconds between each uneven breath, knowing that the timing didn't work the same when someone was in the pod, but what else could he do? He now understood Hunk's fear of releasing Lance. Keith felt as though if he looked away, Lance would be gone.

Because, as he very well knew, not even the cryo-pods could perform miracles.

* * *

"He will be fine," Coran finally said after an hour.

The sound of sighs of relief filled the room. The tension draining from the team's body made everyone's frame appear to shrink by two inches.

"He got bad so quickly," Hunk murmured. He took holo-screen that Pidge had been studying. "The shot severed an artery. Or two or three. Not to mention grazed the spleen. It's a wonder he made it this long."

"Luckily, it was a clean shot," Coran said, taking the floating screen himself. "Blood loss was the biggest threat for Lance, but he will be fully healed by the end of the quintant with no permanent damage."

Keith breathed a second, silent sigh of relief. Besides Lance pulling through, he had also been worried about any lasting effects to his arm. Glancing down at his own leg, Keith wondered how a brace would have affected Lance's shooting.

"What even happened?" Allura asked, turning to the others. "I didn't hear anyone mention an injury until all the lions had launched."

"I didn't know he had been hurt," Shiro said. "I saw the sentry, but Lance acted fine. Keith, you were there. What happened?"

Everyone looked at Keith. He shifted under the attention, muttering, "I didn't know it was bad, either. Lance just wanted to make sure everyone else was safe."

"He's always doing that." Now Pidge had their attention. The smallest paladin was sitting with her knees to her chest, glaring into space. "Remember when Lance protected Coran from the bomb? He's always getting injured protecting us."

Keith winced as he looked at his feet. What Pidge said rang true. The team goofball was always throwing himself into danger if it meant protecting the team. Back on the Balmara, Keith remembered Lance jumping into a hall of sentries to distract them while he got into position. If his shield had been a few inches smaller…

"Keith?"

Keith started, raising his head. Shiro had said his name, though everyone save Lance had turned back to him.

"It's just…" Keith waved a hand. "Nothing."

* * *

After a bit, the team got out of their armor and fell into their normal routine of a teammate in the pod. Coran brought Pidge to the bridge with him and Allura. Hunk went to cook for when Lance got out of the pod -Keith had the feeling they were in for an extra large meal that night. Shiro took the first shift of waiting in the pod room in the chance that Lance woke early. Keith _tried_ to get some training in, but apparently that wasn't what Shiro thought of as resting, so Hunk dragged him to the kitchen to be his taste-tester.

Two hours later, Keith found his escape when Hunk sent him to fetch Shiro for assistance by "someone who might actually know what he is doing." Hunk's words, not Keith's.

Keith found Shiro studying the console's hologram screen. The older man turned as Keith entered, eyebrow raising.

"Hunk needed help with some sort of cooking emergency." Keith shrugged. "Something about which spice is closest to cinnamon."

Shiro chuckled. "Sounds serious. You coming?"

"I'll stay with Lance until you get back," Keith offered, crossing the room. He sat on the steps before Shiro could tell him to. "Go on."

Shiro nodded and left, promising to be back as soon as he could. Keith listened to his footsteps fade, then waited a minute before standing. He walked over to the console and pulled up the screen.

Pidge and Coran had long since added a filter so the paladins could read the Castle's screens, but there was still medical jargon that Keith didn't fully understand. In the corner was a basic overview of Lance's condition, and Keith was glad to see everything was going fine.

Keith raised his head to Lance resting quietly in the pod. "Why did you do it, Lance? You could have just gone ahead to Blue, and the sentry wouldn't have gotten you."

It was a ridiculous question, of course. Everyone knew that Lance was always trying to protect everyone else. It was just his nature. Hunk had once commented that if Lance and Blue weren't so close, Lance would probably be the yellow paladin. Keith knew that, he just wished that Lance would watch over himself sometimes.

"Pidge is going to chew you out once you are conscious." Keith didn't know why he was still talking, besides filling the silence. "Good for her. You've got to stop taking risks like that. We can handle ourselves, you know." Keith's eyes fell. "Maybe you do, and that's why you did it."

Lance had once forced a pep talk on Keith, making sure he knew that he was a needed part of the team. Maybe Lance needed one of those talks. Keith would have to talk to Shiro about that. Even if Keith had it in him to pep talk the blue paladin, he didn't think Lance would pay it any attention. But Keith was thinking it would be needed one way or another.

Just because Keith argued with Lance or didn't say much, didn't mean he didn't notice. Lance had a way of deflating when people didn't notice or need his presence. That's why he was so outspoken a lot of the time. He didn't want to go forgotten or be brushed aside.

"What was it the other cadets called you at the Garrison?" Keith murmured. "'That kid from Cuba,' wasn't it? I never did get why they acted like you should have been insulted when they called you that?"

Lance had basically turned it into his catchphrase, anyway. Got one of the highest scores in a test? "I'm just a kid from Cuba." Running late to class? "What did you expect from a kid from Cuba?"

It wasn't until he heard a whispered conversation between Hunk and Lance one night in the Castle kitchen, that he realized how much Lance had been affected by the name. He had been telling Hunk that he didn't think he deserved to be a paladin because, "I'm just a kid from Cuba."

Keith had thought it was a silly reason then, and he still did now. Putting himself in danger just to prove that he was worth being part of the team?

"You might think you're 'just a kid from Cuba,'" Keith went on. "But you're a kid from Cuba with a whole mess of a family waiting for you to come home. Don't disappoint them just because you are trying to prove yourself. Even if you weren't already a valued teammate, I doubt they would care. They are family, and they just want you to come home."

"All of you have family waiting for you." Keith trailed off, then started up again, directing the words to no one in particular. "Pidge has her family on Earth and in space someplace. Hunk's got a family. He won't talk about them, but I know he misses them. Sounds like he is basically an adopted brother of yours, anyway. Shiro… he doesn't have much family, but he has tons of friends. Everyone at the Garrison likes him." Keith's hands formed fists. "No one is waiting for me back on Earth. No one stands to lose me. I mean, there's Shiro... He's like a brother, but... Maybe its time I stopped depending on him so much."

Keith shook his head, hands falling open. "I once promised I would watch your back. I didn't do such a good job today, but I _will_ from now on. For the whole team. You all are going to get home alive if it is the last thing I do."

* * *

 **A/N: I need a doctor friend. Lance's injury was inspired by a TV show where a character was in an accident that ended up with a piece of guardrail in his side. I also found out that in the case of the original injury of just his elbow, it would have taken an hour with no actions taken to cover the wound for Lance to get so bad. So, punctured spleen. "It's basically a big sack of blood, never a good idea to lose a big sack of blood."**

 **Did anyone get that reference?**

 **Next up: Hunk is poisoned, forcing the team to split up to collect the antidote before he runs out of time. Alone and facing the same effects of the poison, Keith can't bring himself to quit.**


	3. Hunk

**A/N: -stares at this abnormally long chapter- It took longer than I intended to get to the whole "fight to protect" part, but I didn't want to skim the beginning. The ending is abrupt, so it wouldn't breach the 9,000 word mark. Also, I'm thinking of changing the synopsis to "Two times Keith almost died to protect his teammates, two times he was emotionally injured, one I haven't decided, and one time he may not make it."**

 **Kidding!**

 **Warning of throwing up, though its mostly left to your imagination.**

* * *

"Hey, Keith!"

Keith started, jerking his pantleg down. He twisted on his seat -dislodging the mice seated on his shoulder- on the couch to see that Hunk had entered the lounge. He gave a smile, hoping he didn't look guilty.

"Are you okay?" Hunk asked, walking closer.

So much for normal smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

Hunk rounded the couch, eyes running up and down Keith. They rested on Keith's right leg, and Keith slowly turned his eyes down as well.

In his rush, the pantleg had only been pushed halfway down. It was jammed in the circular section of the brace around his knee. The lower half of his leg was visible, with its discolored skin and thin metal poles leading from the knee section to the black shoe they clamped to.

"Is your leg hurting you?" Hunk asked, sitting heavily beside Keith.

"No. Just… looking." Keith tugged his pantleg down the rest of the way, and picked up the indignant mice to resettle them on the couch arm. "Where's everyone else?"

"They came back with me about an hour ago. They're in the bridge, and sent me to find you."

The team had landed on an uninhabited planet, and had decided that a break was in order. The planet had every sort of biome squashed all together -in some places, snow fell feet away from a sunny desert-like strip of sand- that had been interesting to explore.

Keith had been with the rest of the team, but an ill-balanced climb up a pine-like tree had ended with Keith on the ground with all of the exposed skin on his hands scraped up and his clothes covered in a sticky sap that had taken two hours to clean off.

"Oh, well, let's not keep them waiting," Keith said, leaning his hands on his knees to stand.

"Need help?" Hunk asked, standing and holding out a hand.

Keith shot him a grin as he took the offered hand. "My leg's fine, Hunk."

Keith started to stand, then frowned at their clenched hands. Hunk's hand was really clammy, like he was nervous about something. He look further up, and noticed a sheen of sweat on Hunk's face. The bigger boy was starting to sway, too.

"Hunk? Maybe you'd better sit down…" Keith said hesitantly.

Hunk blinked at him, and let go of his hand. He turned to sit, one hand reaching back for the armrest, then his legs seemed to give out. He fell backwards onto the couch with a grunt.

Keith jolted to his feet, and turned to Hunk. "Hunk? Hunk, what's wrong?"

"I-I don't know," Hunk panted. "I just got dizzy all of the sudden."

Keith didn't see any injuries on Hunk, and it wasn't like he could have gotten hurt on the peaceful planet without anyone noticing. He put a hand to his forehead, and found it to be way too hot.

"O-okay," Keith said, straightening. "I need to get Coran. Just stay here, I'll be back in a tick, okay?"

Hunk put on a smile that looked forced, and nodded. Keith waited a second, not sure if he was supposed to do anything else, then whipped to point at the mice.

"Keep an eye on him!"

Platt nodded and squeaked before hustling the other mice closer to Hunk. Keith stared at them for a second, then turned and ran from the room.

* * *

"Coran!"

As Keith rushed into the bridge, he saw everyone else there like Hunk had said. It occurred to him that he must have sounded and looked a bit like Lance getting over-excited about something, so he tried to come to a quick halt.

Which, of course, led to his leg folding over backwards too quickly for the brace to help it. Keith ended up stumbling over his own legs, and crashed into the back of his seat.

Keith hung there for an awkward moment with the team staring at him in shock, before Shiro was running over to him.

"Are you alright? What's the rush?" Shiro asked urgently, catching Keith's arm to help him stand.

"It's Hunk," Keith panted. "He's in the lounge. Something's wrong."

Lance snapped out of his shock at the mention of something being wrong with Hunk. He ran out of the room without a word, prompting everyone else into action. Keith shook off Shiro and hurried after the rest of the team.

Keith and Shiro were the last to arrive at the lounge. They found the rest of the team gathered around Hunk, who had been laid down on the couch. Lance was in front of him, talking to Hunk while Coran was telling Pidge to get a scanner from the infirmary. Allura waited to the side, consoling the mice.

"What's wrong with him, Coran?" Shiro asked as he went to the advisor's side.

"Too early to tell," Coran said.

Lance raised his head. "Hunk says that nothing hurts, but he feels weak and dizzy. And, uh, someone might want to grab a bowl."

"I'll get one," Keith volunteered.

"Are you sure you-" Shiro started, turning to glance at Keith's leg.

"I'm fine."

Keith left and limped toward the kitchen. Scowling down at his weak leg, Keith started up his gallop-run, reaching the kitchen soon enough, and grabbed the first empty bowl he could find.

He headed back out, and found the team was rushing out of the lounge and down another hall in the direction of the pod room. Clutching the bowl to his chest, Keith gallop-hopped after them.

By the time he reached the pod room, Hunk was already in a cryo-pod. Everyone else was still looking nervous, and Coran was rapidly pulling up information on a holo-screen.

"What happened?" Keith asked, coming up behind Pidge.

Pidge shook her head. "I'm not sure. I was going back to the lounge, and they were coming out. Coran said something about buying time for Hunk."

"What?" Keith looked at Coran. "Won't the pod heal Hunk?"

Though Coran wasn't facing him, he heard the question and responded. "The pods can only heal physical wounds."

Lance frowned at him. "But Hunk's gone into a pod before when he was sick, and it made him better."

"The pods do not heal illness," Allura provided. "They give the patient nutrients to sustain them for a time, but does not heal them. We only use the pod for illnesses that require rest and medicine so they are more comfortable."

"And our yellow paladin doesn't merely have an illness." Grasping the holo-screen, Coran turned his serious face to the team. "Hunk's been poisoned."

"Poisoned?" the team echoed.

"Yes. Did any of you see Hunk near a diatox like this?"

Coran swiped up on the holo-screen, and a hologram of fuzzy green creature resembling a bumblebee with no wings and four legs.

"Yeah, he was picking mushrooms in this boggy biome," Lance said.

"Were there only green ones?" Coran specified.

"I… I think so?" Lance looked at Shiro. "You were there. They were only green, right?"

"That is the only color I saw," Shiro agreed.

"Ah, good! The green diatox are the females, and their poison is much less potent than the orange males. We actually have some antidote on the Castle!" Coran said.

"Um…" Keith said hesitantly, wincing at how everyone's expressions quickly turned to horror.

"Tell me you didn't see orange diatox around Hunk," Coran said.

"I did. He was headed toward the Castle, and he said something had bit him. He washed his hand…" Keith offered.

"Hand washing will do nothing once the poison is inside the body, unfortunately," Coran said. "In fact, the poison is highly contagious through saliva, sweat, etc once the symptoms show. Everyone who touched Hunk had better wash the places of contact, even your clothes."

"Are you sure that Hunk was really poisoned? It's been two vargas since he got bit, and he was acting fine until a few doboshes ago," Keith said.

"He did mention feeling a bit dizzy, that's why we came back," Pidge said.

"But that was a varga ago," Lance said.

"That, my boy, is why the diatox are so deadly. The poison lies dormant in the body until it has had time to spread, then the symptoms appear swiftly. It was many deco-pheobs before anyone discovered the source of the poison. It took so long to show, it wasn't until… actually, I will explain later."

Keith traded a distressed look with Pidge. This was the first time Coran had ever stopped _himself_ from a history tirade.

"How long do we have?" Shiro asked.

"It varies according to the patient's size. Given no actions are taken, the diatox's poison would kill someone Hunk's size four vargas once the symptoms start."

At Coran's statement, Lance made a deep-throated moan. He wobbled. Shiro grabbed his arm, but Lance straightened on his own.

"Antidote," Lance rasped. "Where's the antidote?"

"Not here, unfortunately. However!" Coran said quickly. "This multi-biome planet has every setting we need to get the ingredients we need in record time."

"But will it be in time?" Shiro asked.

"It should be. The pod gives us a full day to get the antidote ready," Coran said.

"Can't we put Hunk in cryo-stasis, just in case?" Pidge suggested.

"While cryo-stasis would prevent Hunk from getting worse, it also halts Hunk's immune system. As soon as we let him out, the poison would hit his system harder than a klanmuirl on a rampage. By the time we gave him the antidote, it would already be too late."

"So what are we waiting for?" Lance said. "Tell us where to go."

* * *

Minutes later, everyone was suited up and in their lions while Coran gave out orders. Lance and Pidge were taking Blue to the deepest lake they could find on the planet, where a special kind of deep-water moss grew and a type of herb they needed grew in the shallows. Shiro and Allura were headed for a sandy strip to find a techari cactus -which had a pink, lily-like flower- then to space to find a deep-space plant that grew on meteors. Keith was going alone, as none of the other paladins were equipped to accompany him to his destination: a maze of tunnels underneath a volcano.

"Now, you really are sure you are fine going in alone?" Shiro asked for the third time.

"Shiro, we've gone through this." Keith sighed. "None of your suits can handle a volcano' temperatures. Just be glad that whoever made this suit, made it as heat-resistant as Red. Focus on avoiding those scorpion things guarding your cacti."

"Yeah, Keith's got the easy job," Lance piped up. "A leisurely stroll through a volcano too hot for anything but him and that fire lichen to survive!"

"I don't think that was as comforting as you intended," Pidge said.

"It is true, though," Keith said.

"Shiro, I changed my mind," Lance said abruptly. "Keith's agreeing with me. He must be sick, too. Coran, is hallucinating a symptom of the diatox poison?"

"On occasion, but usually during the extreme fever of the final stages."

"And his temperature is normal," Pidge said. "Sorry, Lance, you're just going to have to live with the fact that Keith can agree with you."

"Speaking of fevers," Shiro interrupted. "Coran, what other symptoms may Hunk show?"

"Yeah, Hunk was saying he was nauseous," Lance said. "How… uh, how does that work in the pods?"

"We would have to take him out at that point, but the major nausea won't happen unless he reaches the final stages. Until then, the patient suffers dizziness, severe dehydration, and fever. Eventually, the fever would worsen after the first three and a half vargas. Vertigo and extreme nausea will follow, then a nose bleed five doboshes before…" Coran cleared his throat. "Of course, with all the ingredients within reach, we will never see that."

"And why isn't this kept on the Castle already?" Pidge asked.

"There are many poisons and many antidotes in the universe, Pidge," Allura said. "The infirmaries on Altea kept stock of most cures, but we couldn't hope to keep them all on the Castle. The diatox are actually a rare creature, travelers preferred to just avoid them once we found them to be the source."

Lance snorted. "Remind Hunk to add this planet to his 'List of Planets to Avoid, for They Could Bring Us to a Painful Death.'"

"He doesn't _actually_ have a list like that, does he?" Keith asked.

"He does," Pidge confirmed. "I've seen it, and it is rather extensive."

"We'll be sure to consult the list before any vacations," Shiro said with a small laugh. "Ah, there's a desert below us, Allura. Lance, Keith, what are your ETA's?"

"We'll be reaching the lake in a few ticks," Lance reported.

"Just a few doboshes for me," Keith said.

In the entirety of the planet, there was only one active volcano on the far side of the planet. The team had to hope that the lava lichen that only grew in close proximity of lava would be someplace there.

As Keith got closer to his destination, he noticed the flora diminishing. He slowed Red a bit for a better look.

Some strips of sand appeared to be normal, but there were also long strips of dead trees and bare places of dirt. All signs of green was gone. As he flew further, the ground took on a burnt appearance.

"Coran, are you seeing this?" Keith asked. "What happened?"

"If I had to guess, I would say that the volcano has been growing. As it expands and the magma spreads, it is slowly killing life on the planet," Coran said. "Look ahead."

Keith raised Red's head. Just ahead, was a massive volcano. It was rumbling, and a thick plume of smoke rose from the top. Lava flowed down the sides, and there was nothing at its base besides burnt, blackened ground.

"I've read about this, but never on this scale," Lance said, having tapped into the video. "Normally, it's just islands. But this… this is a whole planet!"

"It will be many deco-pheobs before the planet is entirely overtaken. The good news is, there will be plenty of lava tunnels to search for the lichen!" Coran said.

Sure enough, Keith didn't even have to get close to the volcano before he spotted the first hole. He led Red down, and the massive lion's eyes lit up to illuminate the interior.

The hole was deep and turned, so Keith jumped Red inside. Immediately, the sensors on the console beeped to indicate dangerous temperatures outside. Luckily, none of the heat could get into Red.

Keith turned Red to face down the tunnel, and found a dead end. There was no lava or lichen in sight.

"The first tunnel is a negative," Keith reported. He got static in response. "Guys?"

Red sat up on his haunches and grabbed the sides of the hole with his paws. He heaved himself back into the open air, and Keith could hear the others again.

"-out for that rock!" Pidge was yelling.

"What's happening?!" Keith demanded, tensing.

"Big fish! Very big fish in the lake!" Lance practically squealed. "Don't worry, I've got it under control!"

"Keith, I lost connection with the red lion for a dobosh," Coran said. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Red went inside a tunnel is all."

"Well, either the heat or the stone is disrupting the sensors. We may be out of touch while you are searching," Coran said.

"That's fine. It shouldn't take long."

Lance yelled, then Coran was distracted to explain the "paffin" they had disturbed. Red moved closer to the volcano, and found several more holes.

"I'm going in," Keith said to whoever might be listening. "I'll call when I'm out."

"Be careful," Shiro said, a bit of static fuzzing the words.

"I will be," Keith said, diving Red into the nearest hole.

* * *

An hour later, Keith still had had no luck. Every hole he ventured into ended up as a dead end or a lava lake with no lichen.

Facing the latest dead-end, Keith scowled. He briefly removed his helmet to wipe his forehead, then paused at the touch of his damp hair.

"You okay, Red? Heat's not too much for you, is it?"

Red simply rumbled. Keith backed him out of the hole, then took a moment to regain his bearings. They were near the base of the volcano, on the opposite side that the lava currently was flowing down.

Keith took a moment to listen to the staticky talking over the coms. Lance and Pidge were having some unexpected difficulties locating the moss -apparently there were a lot of large, unfriendly creatures in the lake. Shiro and Allura had already found the techari flower, and were headed to a nearby asteroid field.

Red rumbled, and Keith noticed another tunnel wide enough for Red. He directed the lion closer, and Red scrambled down. This tunnel was noticeably steeper and deeper, forcing Red to use his thrusters to ease down to the bottom. Red then turned in a circle, revealing a large cavern with a tunnel that led into darkness.

"This is more like it," Keith said. "Come on, Red."

Red rumbled and didn't move. Keith frowned at the controls and pushed forward more forcefully. Red almost seemed to grumble as he began to walk toward the new tunnel.

"What's wrong?" Keith's eyes ran over the console. "You're not overheating, and there aren't any breaches in your armor. Hm. Well, we'll be in and out, hopefully, and Pidge can check you over at the Castle."

Red walked further into the tunnel, which soon became so narrow that Keith was starting to wonder if Red could turn if needed. He kept his eyes open for anything potentially dangerous, but Coran had assured him that nothing could survive the volcano's heat but the lichen.

* * *

After ten minutes of walking, Keith spotted a small gap in the wall that Red couldn't even get a paw into. Keith pulled Red to a stop, determined to investigate.

As Red was settling his head to the ground, Keith jumped to his feet. Immediately, he felt as if the floor was spinning. Gasping, he planted both hands on the console, and the feeling slowly faded.

"What was that?" Keith murmured.

He flexed his right leg, but the spinning sensation couldn't have been from the weak leg. The armor helped support the leg, so it wasn't giving out on him, either.

Keith straightened carefully, and the feeling didn't return. Shrugging it off, Keith trotted to the back of Red's jaw, and the lion let him out.

The suit got slightly warmer inside at the initial contact of the volcano's air, but it soon cooled back to its normal temperatures. Even when Keith crouched to put his hands against the floor, he didn't feel a difference.

Standing, Keith walked over to the gap, which was just a foot shorter than him and plenty wide when he got on his hands and knees. He poked his head into the new space, and saw bubbling lava below. He craned his neck around, but saw only stone and hardened lava.

Keith headed back to Red, pausing at his paw. "There's got to be some lava lichen around here somewhere. Well, we might as well keep going down this tunnel."

Red rumbled as Keith walked into his open mouth. Keith settled in the cockpit, then Red stood and plodded on.

* * *

Another half hour passed of plain stone tunnels. The occasional side tunnel prompted Keith to get out and check it, but there was still no lava lichen.

The tunnel had remained wide enough for Red, which Keith was glad for. It would have taken hours to get so far on foot. The tunnel slanted slightly downward and appeared to be going in a massive spiral down.

Keith thought back to Coran's instructions. The advisor had had gotten them from old data in the Castle. It had been a bit vague on the details, but it had mentioned the base of the volcano. At the rate Red was going, they would have to go to the literal bottom of the volcano before he found the lichen.

He studied the cave walls slipping by. Something seemed to move out of the corner of his eye, but when Keith looked, there was nothing there.

"This place is starting to get to me," Keith murmured.

A shudder ran through Red while Keith's attention was elsewhere. Keith yelped and turned forward, catching Red before her slipped paw let her hit the ground. He quickly backed away, and Keith saw a smear of glowing red on the ground. Tilting Red's head up, Keith saw a crack in the ceiling that was letting lava drip down. Unfortunately, the lava didn't appear to have been there long enough for the lichen to grow.

"You okay, Red?" Keith asked.

Red rumbled, and Keith got a sense of confirmation. Keith knew that Red could withstand lava for a time, but he didn't feel like testing out his abilities today. Skirting the lava puddle, Red moved on.

Twenty minutes later, Red turned a corner to a blank wall. Keith blinked and turned Red's head back and forth.

"Aw, come on!"

Keith stood and stomped out of the cockpit. Red let him out with a sense of concern when he stumbled over Red's metal lip, but Keith ignored it. He stormed up to the stone wall, planted his fists on his hips, and glared at the wall.

The stone didn't move or melt under his gaze, and Keith was briefly distracted by wondering why he thought it might.

Grunting in frustration, Keith kicked the wall as hard as he could. He couldn't even feel the impact through the armor, but he _did_ hear the hollow-sounding thud it made. Curious, he kicked again, and had the same result.

Keith summoned his bayard and formed the sword. Drawing back, he stabbed into the stone as hard as he could.

There was a harsh _crack_ as the sword broke the surface. After a moment's resistance, the sword abruptly slipped forward, straight to the guard. Keith withdrew the sword and peered through the new gap.

It was too dark to see anything beyond the wall, but there was a slight orange glow somewhere ahead.

Keith stepped back and went to work on the wall, slashing and hacking until he had a rough square cut into the stone. Panting and sweating more than he thought he should be, Keith raised his left foot and kicked against the stone. It broke free, and Keith stumbled to crash into the wall with one leg on either side of the hole. Keith shook his head and went to draw his foot back.

Dizziness hit Keith like a physical force, staggering him. His left foot caught on the edge of the hole. While Keith attempted to compensate, his right leg gave out. Keith collapsed in an ungraceful heap, on his back with right leg nearly tucked behind him and left leg still hung up on the stone.

Keith laid there for a moment, breathing shakily, before rolling onto his side and moving his legs out flat. He pushed up on his elbow, gritting his teeth when the dizziness returned and threatened to send him back to the ground. Gradually, the feeling subsided and Keith was able to get to his knees.

He quickly tapped into his armor's readings, and found that it was functioning normally. So why was he sweating, hot, and as dizzy as-

 _Like Hunk had been._

"No, no," Keith muttered. He scrambled to his feet, blinking away the lingering dizziness.

He couldn't be sick! He hadn't been bitten by one of those neon death bugs, he'd only seen them! It had to be something else; the suit was malfunctioning, or something.

Red rumbled, his concern only confirming Keith's fear. He quickly ran through the day, trying to determine when he had been bitten. He realized the dizziness had started when Red had reached the volcano, so he must have been infected an hour before that. But he had been in the Castle, and how could…

Keith moaned and dropped his head into his hands. His scraped, raw hands that had come in contact with Hunk's infected sweat two hours before.

Hunk needed lava lichen. _He_ needed lava lichen. If he could somehow turn Red around, they could be out and back to the Castle in an hour. That gave him two hours to spare so, what, sixteen hours in the pod? Maybe Pidge could use his armor to retrieve the lichen. It would be rather big on her, though, and would Red even let Pidge pilot him?

Although…

Keith glanced into the hole he had made. The glow had to be lava, and it had to be close. And where there was lava, there was lava lichen, right? Would it hurt to just go up and check himself?

 _Probably. Could also kill him if it took too long._

Still, it would be a waste to come so far, and leave when the lichen was practically in reach.

 _Shiro would kill him, if the poison didn't._

Keith looked up at Red. "Hallucinations aren't supposed to start for another two hours. So I sure hope that is you arguing with me."

Red didn't respond, which Keith wasn't sure to find as reassuring or concerning. He shook his head, then crawled through the hole. He turned on his helmet light to get a better look.

The tunnel was even smaller past the wall, too small for Red but plenty big for Keith. The tunnel actually started to turn up, but Keith's light didn't show how far the tunnel went.

Keith ducked to peer back at Red. "Just a quick check, and I'll be back."

Red rumbled, his eyes lighting up to give a surprising amount of light in the new tunnel. Smiling, Keith turned and began to trot up the path.

Well, tried to.

After two steps, the ground spun beneath him. Keith tripped over his own feet and helmet-planted the ground, too startled to even try to stop himself.

 _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea._

"Not helping," Keith growled at -he presumed- Red.

He moved more carefully as he stood once again. When he didn't have any immediate dizziness, Keith nodded and walked forward more carefully.

The tunnel started at a simple slope, but it rapidly turned steeper. Instead of walking up smooth stone, Keith found himself scrambling up boulders.

When Keith paused to catch his breath, he glanced back. Red's lights were still visible, disappointingly, but also far enough that they didn't light anything ahead of Keith.

He turned to resume climbing, only to have the boulder he was preparing to grab go double. After a moment's deliberation, he leaned toward the left. His right hand hit stone, but his left hand on open air threw him off balance. He toppled forward, halfway hugging the next boulder.

"Well," Keith panted. "That works."

Keith reached his hands up to find the top of the stone, and hauled himself up. He crouched and shook his head, trying to get rid of the sweat running down his forehead.

Something scraped against stone ahead. Keith whipped his head up, catching a glimpse of beady eyes glowing in the darkness before they vanished.

Telling himself he had imagined the eyes, Keith stood and walked to the next boulder. As he reached up for a hand-hold, his right hand feel on something with more give than stone. A loud screech came from the thing. Keith jerked his hand back and his head up.

The thing resembled a bat, with black leathery skin and four long legs in addition to its clawed wings. Its white eyes scrunched against the light, long-fanged mouth open in a shriek. Its huge ears pressed against its head while its wings tucked against its body.

Keith dove to the side to avoid being dive-bombed. He rolled to his knees, whipping his head around for the thing, but it had vanished.

 _That's a delightful development._

Keith was starting to get really annoyed with the commentary in his head. Though, it was possible it was just his own thoughts. Thoughts that sounded an awful lot like a combination of a fondly scolding Coran and a sarcastic Pidge on two hours of sleep.

A flutter of wings caught Keith's attention, bringing him spinning around and raising his bayard. His sword formed in time for him to slash at two of the beasts flying at him. He missed entirely, staggering himself with the momentum but managed to stay upright. Both creatures flew into the darkness too quickly to track.

Keith checked his wrist console. It was over 2,000 degrees in the tunnel! How could anything survive such heat? And a better question, why hadn't Coran mentioned them?!

Keith scanned the air with his helmet lights, heart pounding, but didn't spot the creatures again. Maybe he had just startled them, and they would leave him be.

When nothing else jumped out at him, Keith let out a slow breath. He blinked rapidly to clear the sweat dripping into his eyes and scrambled up the next stone.

He climbed the boulders with no major incident for -according to his wrist console- twenty minutes. It felt like twenty years. His legs were shaking, his vision kept doubling, and he was starting to get way too hot in the suit.

Keith wearily scrabbled up a boulder and collapsed on his stomach. He was panting hard, tongue hanging from his mouth. He swallowed, dry throat making him cough. He lifted his head, wondering how much further he had to go. His eyes widened.

The steep climb was gone. The ground ahead was littered with loose stone, but it was flat. The glow was closer now, and Keith could barely make out the stone that must have formed a back wall of the tunnel.

Chuckling breathlessly, Keith forced himself to his knees. He paused to let the dizzy spell he now found normal to pass, then stood up. He promptly staggered, hands pressing against his helmet as the dizziness returned with a vengeance.

 _Maybe now would be a good time to go back._

Keith shook his head, groaning at the way it made his head swim. He lifted his head and saw his hands digging into the stone. His knees were pressed against the ground, uncomfortable pangs running up his right leg. He hadn't even noticed falling.

He forced himself to wobble to his feet. He was _this_ close to the lichen! He still had… two and a half hours? A glance at his wrist showed that it had been fifteen minutes since the spell, drawing another groan from Keith. Okay, two and a quarter.

Keith stumbled forward, blinking furiously in an attempt to keep his vision relatively clear. He formed his sword, knowing the bat-beasts were still around. Rocks skittered under his feet, constantly jerking his right leg uncomfortably.

If the beasts weren't such noisy flyers, Keith never would have detected the approach from behind. As it was, it took a moment to register the noise, at which point he lunged to the ground, popping back up with his sword at the ready.

Two of the beasts wheeled overhead, screeching to each other. Keith did his best to keep the light on them, since this seemed to disturb them, but the beasts never stayed close to each other for long. Keith would focus on one, only to hear the second come from behind.

After a minute of spinning that was doing nothing good for his dizziness, Keith tucked in his chin. The light shone on the ground and the beasts gave a triumphant screech. Keeping his head down, Keith swung his sword in a wide arc above his head. There was a piercing squeal and a thump.

Keith lifted his head, spotting one of the beasts on the ground with a slim cut on its side. The second swooped down to crouch over it and hiss at Keith.

Keith backed away, angling his light so it didn't shine on the beasts. They both gave a huffy growl and scurried away. Keith got the feeling they would leave him alone now.

Turning back in the direction of the glow, Keith pushed on. The rapid motions of the fight had caused his vision to remain doubled, so Keith just did his best to keep his wandering feet in the direction of the lava glow.

When Keith was finally close enough to hear the lava bubbling and see the borders of the lava lake, he checked his time. Quiznak, it had taken an hour to just get to the lava?

 _Cutting it a little close._

Keith frowned as he staggered over to the wall. Well, half that time had been climbing up the boulders. And if Keith had had so much trouble focusing on the climb up, he had a pretty good idea that going down would be so much faster.

 _Just throw yourself down a wall of rock. What could possibly go wrong?_

Keith's groping hands finally found the wall. He narrowed his eyes at the stone, but he knew lava lichen was the same black as the walls. He felt around, and his hands pressed against something slightly squishy that didn't squeal. Keith scraped off a handful and stuffed it into a pouch, then felt around for more.

As Keith collected the lichen, his mind wandered to the bat-beasts. If lava lichen was the only thing that could grow down there, he supposed that the lichen is what the beasts ate. Although, if that was true, why did they need such sharp teeth and why were they so vicious? Herbivores that had little contact with other creatures were supposed to be shy or curious, right?

A slapping sound from Keith's right made him wish he could take back the silent question. He _really_ didn't want to know the answer.

A dreadful moaning sound filled the cave. Stuffing away the last handful of lichen, Keith slowly turned.

There was something _in the lava!_ It was bulbous and black, with at least three tentacles waving through the air. A massive mouth -previously hidden within the blob- opened in a screech.

Someone seriously needed to talk with Coran how extensive his knowledge of fauna on foreign planets really was.

It hadn't noticed Keith, apparently. Its tentacles wandered the air, feeling the walls and surface of the lava. Keith shifted away from the wall, not wanting to mess with another grumpy beast.

Of course, walking quietly with doubled vision is next to impossible. Within a dozen steps, Keith's foot slipped on a stone, producing a loud scraping sound.

The beast didn't even turn. It occurred to Keith that maybe it had been facing him the entire time; it just had no eyes. Two of the tentacles rushed forward. Keith lashed out with the sword, slicing the ends of both. The beast rose to twice its height, shrieking.

 _Run._

For once, Keith completely agreed. He threw himself in a run, willing his feet to remain steady. He didn't get far, when something grabbed his leg. Keith fell to the ground with a grunt. He twisted around to see a tentacle wrapped around his leg, and another reaching for him.

Yelling, Keith jabbed the tentacle holding him. It flinched and let go, letting Keith scramble to his feet. He didn't even have time to take a step, though, before two more tentacles grabbed his ankles. They jerked him back to the ground, knocking Keith's breath away. A new tentacle, still dripping lava, coiled around Keith's middle and hauled him roughly into the air. Keith gasped, left hand instinctively grabbing onto the tentacle as the world spun around him while his right hand maintained its grip on the sword.

Keith was pulled closer to the lava creature. He winced when he found himself over the lava. He pulled his legs up as far as the tentacles would allow, then turned his focus back on the lava beast.

If the thing had had eyes, it would have been studying him closely. The tentacles turned him sideways and every angle. His legs were tugged experimentally. He was squeezed a bit, but the armor prevented any damage from happening.

"I'm not food," Keith whispered.

Apparently, the thing agreed. It gave a burbling grumble and set the confused red paladin back onto the ground. The tentacles released him, all but one withdrawing into the lava.

"Um, okay." Keith took a tentative step back. "I'll just be going. Thanks for not-"

The last of Keith's sentence was cut off with an _oof_ when the remaining tentacle whipped forward, catching him smack in his middle. Keith's feet left the ground, ground spinning for real this time as he was flung head-over-heels from the impact. He tumbled painfully across the uneven ground before skidding to a stop on his stomach.

For a long time, Keith could only pant and squeeze his eyes shut. He had luckily avoided nausea so far, but his stomach was doing some awful twisting right then. His right leg was pulsing from the rough treatment. Keith huffed raggedly, eyelids fluttering. Maybe if he just laid there for a moment…

 _Get up!_

Keith's eyes shot open, mostly in annoyance. His right arm was curled in front of his face, and Keith could see the countdown. One hour, forty-five minutes.

 _Get back to the Castle. You have the lichen, like you so wanted._

"Quit that," Keith growled, shoving his elbows under him.

Keith lifted his head, and saw that he had been tossed to the edge of the climb. He looked in the other direction, and saw no sign of the volcano creatures. The lava-beast had probably been upset about its injuries and that Keith didn't seem edible, and just wanted him gone. Well, Keith was more than happy to oblige.

Knowing it was useless to try and stand on his shaky legs, he just swung his body to the edge and half-crawled, half-fell to the next stone. From there, he scrabbled downwards on hands and knees, occasionally slipping and tumbling down several boulders before he stopped.

Keith honestly didn't remember much of the climb -okay, more like a semi-controlled plummet- but he had been right in how much faster it was. He made it to the bottom in a third of the time.

He laid there for a moment, pressing his body to the smooth stone. That persistent voice-thought thing and Red's rumbling convinced Keith to drag himself upright much sooner than he wanted. Swallowing thickly, Keith managed a quick stagger toward the hole that would bring him back to Red.

Feet away from the hole, his stomach suddenly tensing gave Keith the motivation to hurry. He threw himself through the gap and scrambled into Red's waiting mouth. His huge jaw clanged shut, and Keith waited with clenched jaw for the green light that the environment was good. As soon as he had it, he threw off his helmet as he stomach gave an unpleasant surge. He collapsed to his knees, eyes squeezing shut as he heaved.

After a full minute, the gagging finally died down. Keith coughed and spit bile out of his mouth, then crawled away from the sick. He snagged his helmet and dragged himself to the cockpit, feeling emptier than any time he could remember. He hauled himself into the pilot's seat, laying an exhausted head against the headrest. His eyelids fluttered as he panted, staring at the ceiling.

 _Get back to the Castle. Sure hope the others have the rest of the antidote._

Keith's eyes widened at the thought. What if the others weren't ready? By the time he got to the Castle, it would be too late to put him in the pod!

"Stupid!" Keith growled.

Keith reached for the controls, but found he could only weakly grip them. Red rose, giving a mighty roar. Keith's hands slipped from the controls, but Red still twisted in the confined space.

 _Red can do it alone. Just stay awake._

"You're… really annoying," Keith said. He smacked his lips, grimacing and promptly wiping his face.

A surge of fear from Red ran through Keith. Red roared again and tipped his head back. His mouth opened, and a white-hot beam shot out of it.

"Red!"

Red lunged up, paws reaching to gouge out pawfuls of melted stone. He was _digging_ back to the surface! In seconds, he had dug out a hole big enough for his entire body. He leaped up and used his huge claws to hold himself in place while he repeated the process.

Keith was surprised at how quickly Red was digging upward. He was constantly moving, melting and scraping stone out of the way and climbing into the new space.

After fifteen minutes, Red paused. Keith, who had been listlessly fiddling with a glove and trying to ignore how unsettled his stomach still was, looked up. The stone didn't look any different, but he could feel Red gathering himself for something.

In a blur of motion, one of Red's paws shot out. It broke straight through the stone, and a glowing orange liquid began to ooze down.

"Lava?! Red!"

Red surged forward, straight into the lava. Keith gasped as the eye ports were covered in the harsh glow. Low alarms began to beep, preludes for the blaring to come if Red spent too long in the lava. Red twitched and writhed as he swam through the lava.

The alarms got louder. Keith's breath caught. Red's movements became quicker.

Relief filled Keith as he sensed rather than saw Red break into open air. The lion's massive head shook, slightly clearing the eye ports while the remaining lava hardened.

Keith was so happy to be out in the open, that he nearly forgot to contact the others. Red rumbled and shot into the sky, while Keith scrambled for the helmet.

"This is Keith! I have the lichen, did you get everything else?" Keith asked. He was shaking so much that his voice wobbled.

"Keith!" Pidge's voice responded. Her voice was staticky, so Keith assumed she didn't catch his shaky voice. "Yep, we've got everything here and ready. All we need is the lichen."

"Good. Because-" Keith's eyes widened. "Hold that thought."

Keith jerked off his helmet -Pidge didn't need to hear this- and fell out of his seat. He at least managed to turn his body as his stomach rebelled once again. But this time, there wasn't anything left, so Keith was left dry heaving and choking on his own breath.

When the fit finally passed, Keith reached up to grab the console. He dragged himself to his knees, gasping for breath and feeling tears leak out of his clenched lids.

"Keith?!"

Keith wearily opened his eyes, and saw that Pidge had opened the video feed on the console. He self-consciously wiped his mouth as the youngest paladin stared at him in horror.

"What happened to you?" Pidge didn't even wait to respond, turning to yell for Shiro.

By the time Keith got himself back into the seat, Shiro was at Pidge's shoulder. His face blanched, and Keith started to wonder just how bad he looked.

"What happened, Keith?" Shiro asked, leaning closer to the screen.

"There was… a climb… some weird creatures," Keith mumbled, coughing on his sour breath.

Shiro turned his head. "Allura, we need a pod for Keith!"

 _They think it's an injury. Tell them about the poison._

"I'm getting there," Keith muttered. "I'll tell them."

Shiro looked back at Keith. "Who are you talking to, buddy?"

Keith shook his head. He didn't have the willpower to explain the voice in his head. "I'm not… not hurt."

Shiro and Pidge froze. They blinked at Keith almost in unison. Shiro's eyes slowly widened, probably realizing what Keith meant.

Just in case, though. "I got poisoned when… when Hunk touched me. I-I still got… over an hour."

"Are you out of your quiznaking mind?!" Pidge demanded. "You should have come straight back!"

"I'm fine," Keith drawled, vaguely wondering why he was losing control of his tongue. "Got'n hour."

"Keith, you're smaller than Hunk, so the poison will overwhelm you faster!" Pidge spat.

"So… I don't have an hour?"

Pidge literally growled. Shiro made a visible effort to smooth his features as he shook his head.

 _Brilliant._

"Red lion incoming!" Coran's voice came from behind Shiro.

"Pidge and I are waiting right in your hanger," Shiro said calmingly. "Just hang on for a bit longer."

Keith smiled tiredly, raising his eyes as Red flew himself into the hanger. He pushed himself to his feet -ignoring Shiro's protest to stop moving- and turned as Red lowered himself. He managed a wobbly step before Shiro was rushing into the cockpit.

"Shiro…" Keith sighed.

Shiro was there in a second, catching his arms and steadying him. Keith leaned against his stable frame, shaking even harder now. There was a strange sensation in his nose, and he reached up a hand as Shiro guided him down the ramp.

"Shiro?" Keith shuddered, and Shiro paused to look at him.

Keith moved the hand away from his face, and there was a gasp from Pidge standing nearby. Keith dazedly looked at his palm.

Blood.

Keith lifted his head, meeting Shiro's horrified gaze. In a voice barely a whisper, he said, "I-I don't feel so good."

Keith's legs gave out. Shiro swept him up without hesitation. He broke into a run, his yells for Coran making Keith wince.

"Sorry, bud," Shiro whispered.

A hand ran through Keith's hair. Keith smiled weakly at Shiro. Everything would be fine, right? They had the lichen. They had the other ingredients. They could fix the antidote for him and Hunk, he could rest.

Keith's eyes fluttered shut. Shiro yelled at him in a panic, but the voice was quickly fading. He was jolted against a flat, cold surface, but he only acknowledged it for a second. Voices blurred over him. Someone's hand was on his forehead. Something was forced down his throat.

But everything would be fine. Keith sighed, feeling the traces of the world fading away, disappearing completely as a single voice rang clear.

 _Don't you dare die._

* * *

Voices were murmuring above him, voices indistinct. He was laying on something soft, with something else light on top of him. At some point, he had been changed out of his armor.

Even with his eyes closed, he knew the dizziness was gone. He didn't feel hot anymore, and his stomach was finally settled. He felt drained, but it didn't feel like anything that rest could fix.

Having finished his physical check, he turned his attention to the voices.

"We'll keep an eye on them," Coran was saying.

"Yeah, Shiro," Lance said. "You can go… change. If Hunk wakes up and sees all that blood, he'll just pass out again."

"It isn't that much," Shiro said defensively.

"It's still disgusting," Pidge said. "Come on, you have blood on your armor. That's never a pretty sight."

"Fine, fine. Just call if either wakes up."

Footsteps meant that Shiro had left. The others' conversations fell to more mundane things. Keith wanted to drift back to sleep, but not until he knew Hunk was okay.

Keith opened his eyes, immediately regretting it. _Why_ were the Castle lights so bright?

"Did you hear that?"

"What, Lance? Ghosts moving through the halls?" Pidge teased.

"First of all, never joke about ghosts or haunts in my presence. Second, _no!_ " Lance added more quietly. "I think."

Keith inched his eyes open, relieved to find the lights less blinding. He could tell he was in the infirmary, on one of the beds and a blanket over him. Coran, Allura, Lance, and Pidge were standing nearby, talking.

He couldn't see Hunk from where he laid, so he lifted his head. The act was surprisingly hard, and he let out a grunt.

Lance gave a loud combination of a squeal and a yell. He leaped backward, arms flailing like he was trying to get into some martial arts stance, but he somehow managed to get his jacket half-flung off his body and tangled around his body. He crashed into Pidge and both paladins fell to the ground at the feet of two very confused Alteans.

"Lance?" Allura's mouth twitched before she smoothed her features. "Are you quite alright?"

"He won't be once I'm done with him," Pidge growled. She climbed to her feet, jabbing her knees into Lance's stomach multiple times in the process.

Keith ignored what was said next. Now that the others had moved, he could see Hunk laying on another bed.

Hunk looked much better than he had earlier that day, laying on another cot under a blanket like Keith was. He was a bit surprised and amused to see the mice sitting on the edge of Hunk's bed, still keeping an eye on him.

While Keith watched, Hunk's head moved to the side. His eyes crept open, wincing at the light before coming fully open. His eyes wandered the room, taking in the growing argument between Pidge and Lance, before meeting Keith's eyes. He blinked in confusion, then gave him an "I'm okay" smile that Keith gladly returned.

Chulatt squeaked at Hunk and hopped. Keith gave a twitch of his head and the mice, understanding, fell silent as they scurried on top of Hunk.

The two recovering paladins grinned at each other from behind the others' backs, amusement growing as they remained unnoticed. Coran was too busy trying to hold Pidge back, and Allura was scolding Lance for acting out so oddly and abruptly.

Keith was stifling laughter as Lance apologized to Pidge with enough drama that one could have thought it physically hurt him, when his commentary returned. He had put it down as the fever affecting him, but the voice cut through his thoughts like a knife.

 _Looks like everything is back to normal._

Keith smirked. Hunk's smile grew at Keith's silent amusement and Pidge's insistence that Lance's "apology" wasn't good enough.

It would be a good five minutes before Shiro walked in and indignantly asked why no one called, that anyone would notice Keith and Hunk were awake.

* * *

 **A/N: I tried for a real reference in here. Hope I didn't slaughter the scene too badly. (I haven't seen the movie, but the scene is pretty popular.)**

 **Can anyone guess the source of Keith's "commentary?" I was sort of inspired by Jaime and Scarab from Young Justice, especially where Keith responded to the voice in front of Shiro.**

 **Up next: Trapped in a cave where dreams and reality blur, Keith tries to protect Shiro strange beasts and their own imaginations.**


	4. Shiro

**A/N: Since I have yet to explain, the first three chapters took place in early season two, this chapter is in the later part of season two, and the next chapter will jump way ahead to post-season six.**

 **I had to pull out all the stops for font/punctuation variations. Here's a... a thing so you know what's going on:**

"Regular speech"

 _"thoughts"_

 _Keith's mental commentary_ **(I was hoping for some guesses on the source, but okay...)**

 ** _"The suit's computer"_**

 **I was forced to remove the lyrics of the song that Keith sings in this story, but it was _Brave Soldier Boy/Leaves From the Vine_ from Avatar: the Last Airbender cartoon.**

 **And well, that is all. Also, it gets slightly creepy for a bit around the middle. Either don't read at night, or do so with all the lights on. Hope it was worth the wait.**

* * *

It was dark and dim. Water pressed coldly against his face, filling his helmet through the shattered visor. His legs kicked wildly, one hand paddling while the other clasped the heavy weight trying to pull him down. His lungs were screaming for air, his stinging eyes focused on the light from above.

Just when Keith was sure the light was only his imagination, his hand burst into open air. New strength flooded his limbs. He surged to the surface, mouth gaping to suck in air so harshly that he nearly inhaled the water streaming out of his helmet. Shaking his head, Keith angled his body and jerked his other arm.

Shiro popped to the surface. His eyes were closed and he wasn't moving, but Keith could see the slight fog on his visor, proof that he was breathing.

Keith gave a huff of relief. While Shiro's visor was cracked on the side from the same impact that had broken Keith's, at least it was still intact.

Glancing around, Keith found they were floating in the middle of a small, but deep, pool. He checked that Shiro was secure, then kicked in the direction of dry land. When his hand found stone, he hauled Shiro to the edge.

After a good deal of shoving, grunting, and accidently ducking himself twice, Keith finally had Shiro out of the water. He scrambled out beside the black paladin and collapsed on his stomach. A pang of pain ran through his chest.

"Ow," Keith mumbled. He rolled onto his back, wondering if he might have injured a few ribs.

After a moment to catch his breath, Keith sat up. He glanced at Shiro when the older paladin gave a small groan. Keith leaned over and removed Shiro's helmet.

The left side of his head was soaked with water from the crack, but Keith didn't see any injuries on Shiro besides a growing lump above his left ear.

"Shiro, can you hear me?" Keith asked.

Shiro's eyes scrunched, then slowly opened. He stared into open air in a daze, before his eyes focused on Keith. Relief flashed in Shiro's eyes, then he shifted. Keith helped him sit up.

"Are you alright?" Shiro asked.

Keith shrugged. "I'll be fine. How about you? You hit your head pretty hard up there."

"Fine. The helmet took the brunt of it." Shiro put a hand to the back of his head, then winced.

"Yeah, well…" Keith removed his helmet as well and shook out his sopping hair. "I haven't heard any of the others since we fell. I think my comms are busted."

Shiro frowned. "Fell…?"

Keith's eyes widened. "You don't remember?"

"It kind of hurts to think," Shiro admitted ruefully.

"That's fine, I'll remind you," Keith said, pushing aside the worry of what the head trauma plus partial memory loss could mean. "We were patrolling for Galra near the Olkari earlier today, and we noticed a ship on an island on one of the planets."

"Yes… it was crashed, wasn't it?" Shiro said.

Keith nodded. "And torn wide open. Before we could leave, this big bear thing came out and attacked us. We fought it off, but ended up on some unstable ground. You and I fell, but I think the others were fine. We hit something. You were knocked out and my visor was shattered, then we fell into that pool."

"Have you looked for a way out?" Shiro asked.

"Not yet."

Keith picked up his helmet and used it to check the cave. It was relatively small, with the pond in the center and a single tunnel making the only gap in the rock wall. The ceiling was of a blue crystal, the uneven surface making it hard to see the hole from which they had fallen.

"There," Keith said, pointing at the tunnel. "Stay here, I'll check it out."

Keith replaced his helmet and stood cautiously. Aside from the pang in his chest, his bad leg had developed a dull throb that would hopefully wear off once he got a chance to rest it. Still, he was better off than Shiro, so he had to be the one to investigate.

Keith limped over to the tunnel and peered in. The tunnel went straight, with no end in reach of Keith's light.

"I don't see anything," Keith reported. "Should I check it out?"

"No. When lost, it's best to stay put so the others can find us."

Keith smirked as he limped back to Shiro. "You sound like a wilderness survival book."

Shiro returned the smirk. "It worked for Pidge back on that trash nebula."

"Yeah, but she also ended up being the one who found us."

Despite Keith's playful protests, he did agree that staying put would be their best shot. While the packs of food goo stored in their suit's packs were far from savory, they could substitute food and water for at least a week.

The two settled in the best they could to wait.

* * *

The next day -at least, Keith assumed that since the timekeepers on their suits were not working- there had been no contact from the others outside.

Keith fiddled with his glove, staring at the ceiling for several hours before he finally stood. The pain in his ribs and leg was a barely noticeable throb.

"I'm going to check the tunnel. If the others aren't here yet, we may have to get out ourselves," Keith said, putting on his helmet.

"Don't go far."

Keith shook his head, but grinned once his back was turned. He headed to the tunnel and walked a few yards down it, but the smooth stone walls remained the same. Keith stopped with a groan of disappointment, then headed back before Shiro could worry.

"I didn't see any-" Keith stopped himself, freezing with a grunt of alarm.

Where Shiro had been sitting a minute before, the ground was empty!

"Shiro?"

Keith blinked and rubbed his eyes, then found Shiro back where he was supposed to be. He frowned, wondering if it had been a trick of the light.

"What's wrong?" Shiro asked.

"N-nothing. I don't see anything down there," Keith said, glancing back down the tunnel. "It just goes on and on."

"Well, we might as well check it out."

Shiro grunted as he started to stand. Keith hurried over to help him, and let the older paladin lean on him until he regained his balance.

"Are you sure you are up to it?" Keith asked, worriedly watching Shiro as he stepped away.

"It was just a little knock to the head. I've had worse."

Shiro's gaze grew distant, and Keith glanced at his white tuft of hair. After a moment, Shiro shook himself.

"The others are probably frantic. Let's get out of here."

* * *

 _Something isn't right._

Keith started and gave a quick glare just behind him and down. The nagging little voice in the back of his brain persisted, though.

 _The island wasn't that big. We should be outside by now._

Keith snorted. When Shiro glanced at him, he turned it into a cough. He smiled at Shiro, who shrugged and didn't ask. Once Shiro had turned away again, Keith took out his Marmoran blade from the sheath around his middle.

The odd little voice had always been present in Keith's life, just rarely enough to the point that he had assumed it to be his own thoughts. In the last month it had become more persistent, especially since he had been accidentally poisoned. It wasn't until he met the Blade of Marmora that he learned of the source: his knife.

The blade was made of luxite, which was somehow semi-sentient. A Blade of Marmora and their blade could connect, and the blade became a sort of companion to the Blade. Some blades were more vocal than others, and Keith had the unfortunate luck to have a rather sarcastic blade that liked to constantly give its input.

Of course, Keith couldn't respond out loud to the knife, since the Blade of Marmora was very strict about luxite's sentience remaining a secret. In fact, it was rare for a Blade of Marmora to know about it unless they had a commutative blade themselves.

"Keith?"

Keith jumped. He looked up, realizing that he had stopped walking. Shiro had stopped a few yards ahead, and was turned back with a concerned look on his face.

"It's nothing," Keith said, walking forward. "I just got lost in-"

Keith's sentence died on his lips when he noticed a pair of glowing red eyes above Shiro's head. The owner of the eyes moved into the light, revealing a massive furred head and gaping jaws headed straight for Shiro!

"Look out!"

Keith's arm snapped forward, throwing his blade with all his strength. Shiro dived to the side, and the beast moved quickly out of sight without a sound. There was a distant clang like metal on stone.

"Are you alright?" Keith asked, rushing up to Shiro.

Shiro scrambled to his feet. "Yeah. What was it?"

"Something big."

Keith summoned his bayard and formed his sword, while Shiro powered up his hand. The pair slowly walked further up the tunnel. They came across Keith's blade, but no sign of the beast.

"How did it miss?" Keith murmured, crouching to pick up the knife. "It had to have been too big to dodge that quickly."

"Probably lucky." Shiro peered down the tunnel. "But why did it just leave?"

"It could have buddies further down," Keith said drily.

"It's a risk we'll have to take. If we stay in the tunnels, we would have the advantage of maneuverability," Shiro decided.

 _Or we could be walking into an ambush._

Keith gave the blade a shake, pretending to just be shaking off dust. He sheathed the knife, then kept to Shiro's side as they continued down the tunnel.

* * *

Keith started to worry when the day of walking passed without seeing anything. Well, that wasn't entirely true. He did once see a stream of water trailing down the wall, a couple of bat-like creatures like he had seen back at the volcano, and a flash of distant eyes. But, as soon as he blinked, they would vanish.

Keith decided to keep it to himself. Shiro never noticed the things in the tunnel, so Keith decided to ignore them like he was ignoring the increasingly persistent knife.

 _There's something off with this place._

" _No more off than the voice in my head,"_ Keith thought.

"Did you hear that?" Shiro asked.

Keith froze. "Hear what?"

Shiro stopped and cocked his head to the right. "I'm not sure. It was some sort of scratching."

Keith listened, but all he could hear was his and Shiro's breathing. Shiro started, and Keith raised his sword.

"There it was again!" Shiro said.

"I didn't hear anything," Keith said. "Do… do you want to sit down for a moment?"

Shiro gave him an exasperated look. "It's probably whatever you saw earlier."

Keith narrowed his eyes. "Wait here."

Before Shiro could respond, Keith broke into a run. His burnt-out jetpack sputtered to life, shooting him a dozen feet down the tunnel before sparking out. He touched down without slowing, and whipped out his knife to hurl down the tunnel. He was right behind it, sword and shield raised while he strained his eyes for any sign of the beast.

Somewhat predictably, Keith didn't see anything. He finally slowed to a panting halt. Narrowing his eyes, Keith dropped his head. For something so large, it had to leave some sort of mark on the stone tunnel.

Instead, Keith's eyes landed on his knife. His breath caught. He was fairly certain he passed the blade some distance down the tunnel.

"Did you see anything?"

Keith jumped and spun around. It was just Shiro, walking slowly and not even out of breath.

"How'd you catch up so fast?" Keith asked.

Shiro's brows raised. "You didn't go far. You just threw your knife and ran to it."

Keith's own brows raised. His mouth moved without him making a sound. Rather than try to explain, Keith snapped his mouth shut and tapped his helmet.

"Hey, can anyone hear me now?"

In the following silence, Keith turned back towards the way he had come. His next call to the others came out as a startled grunt.

Twenty feet down the tunnel, was the room he and Shiro had first fallen into. The pond glowed with an unnatural light.

"Keith?"

Keith's gaze whipped to Shiro. His eyes widened when he saw Shiro's Galra arm raised and glowing.

"Let me help." The simple phrase sounded sinister as Shiro sneered.

Keith gasped and stepped back. He stumbled over a stone, and when he looked back up, Shiro's expression was one of concern. His arm was raised, but not glowing. A quick check found only dark tunnel in either direction.

"Sh-Shiro? Something's w-wrong," Keith stammered.

Shiro started to say something, then gasped and leaned closer. "Your eyes! They're y-"

"What about my eyes?" Keith asked, unconsciously raising a hand.

Shiro squinted, then stepped back. "They looked yellow for a second there. Must have just been a trick of the light."

 _Trick of the light, just like everything else here has been._

Keith growled and pressed the palms of his hands against his eyes. "We're both seeing things. We have to get out of here, and fast." Keith lowered his hands, then frowned. "Another one?"

Pacing in the edge of the light, was some new beast. It resembled a wolf, standing on four legs and was the size of a large dog. Its skin was wrinkled and grey, its eyes gleamed green, and saliva dripped from its fangs. When it spotted Keith watching it, the beast started to run toward the two paladins.

Keith tensed, then made himself relax. "It's only my imagination, only my imagination."

Shiro turned as if he could see what Keith was talking about, just as the beast was close enough that it crouched and leaped. Shiro gave a startled cry, then shoved Keith while lunging backwards. Keith fell hard on his rear, wide-eyed in shock when the beast landed where he had just been standing.

"Keith-" Shiro started, powering up his arm.

Keith hurried to stand. "I know: _not_ my imagination."

The beast looked back and forth between the pair, then started to back away. It snarled and snapped at the air for several minutes in which Keith was able to see the beast more clearly.

Firstly, he realized that its eye -the right one was covered with a strip of cloth- was were a dull and glazed blue. The glowing green was from a pair of markings just under its eyes, reminding Keith of an Altean's. It had patchy fur that was matted and greasy, and there was a lighter patch of fur between its eyes and on its muzzle. It was wearing ragged cloth that seemed to have once been pants or shorts, and there was a strip of cloth slung over its shoulders. A long tail whipped and weaved behind it, and its half-flopped ears were pressed to its skull.

"What is it?" Keith whispered, edging toward Shiro.

"I'm not sure. Whatever it is, must be under the same influence as you." Keith gave Shiro a confused look, so Shiro elaborated. "It is acting like there are invisible enemies all around it."

Keith eyed the jumpy creature. It was ignoring the paladins then, intent on swiping at the empty air with its nearly human forepaws.

"What should we do, then?" Keith asked. "Do we go past it?"

Shiro opened his mouth to answer, when the beast decided for them.

With no warning, the beast let out an ugly combination of a howl and a scream, and lunged at Keith. The boy yelped and leaped back, barely avoiding the snapping jaws. Shiro ran forward, to punch the beast across the muzzle and sent it rolling to the ground. It was back on its paws in a second, snarling and snapping, then turned and ran out of sight down the tunnel.

"I'm starting to think we should have stayed back at the pond," Keith said after a moment. "Maybe Yellow could have dug us out."

"We have to be close to the outside by now," Shiro said.

"Can we risk it with that thing running around in here?"

"It could come after us no matter which way we go."

Keith and Shiro stared at each other for several minutes, long enough for Keith to wonder. Shiro never hesitated in making a decision. Why was he being so indecisive?

"Let's just keep going," Keith said after another silent moment. "If we run into it again, there is two of us and one of it."

Shiro tensed, eyes darting down the tunnel. "Did you hear that?"

"No."

"It sounded like… chains rattling."

Keith sighed. So, he was seeing things and Shiro was hearing things. There was a wild beast-thing that _may_ have once been a sane creature running through the tunnel. He was starting to think that having a talking knife was the most normal thing in the tunnel.

 _We need to get out of here, and fast._

Considering that was the least sarcastic thing Keith had heard the blade say, Keith was slightly concerned. And even more concerned that he noticed in the first place.

"Let's keep walking," Keith said.

By silent decision and agreement, Keith and Shiro started to run.

* * *

The first change in the tunnel walls was far from comforting. Keith spotted it out of the corner of his eye. He jerked Shiro to a stop and pointed.

"Are you seeing this, too?"

Long, thin scratches covered the walls. Whatever had done it couldn't have been big -Keith suspected the wolf-beast- but there was a disturbing amount of them.

"Yes," Shiro breathed. He scanned the tunnel with his light, then said, "Look there."

Keith tore his gaze from the marked walls to where Shiro's light rested. There was a couple of bundles laying against the wall. Ready for a distraction, Keith walked over to inspect them.

The first bundle proved to be a worn bedroll. The brown material was torn, stained, and full of gray fur. Upon further inspection, Keith realized it had been situated into a nest-like form.

The second bundle proved to be more interesting. It was a pack made with a tough material; few of the scratches on it had cut all the way through. One of the straps looked to have been chewed through. After a moment of hesitation, Keith opened the pack.

First, there was a bundle of grey clothing. Keith set it aside, then pulled out a shard of metal that had been formed into a rough knife with cloth making a handle. There was some containers of thick strips of what Keith decided to be food, and a half-full canteen. At the very bottom was a hard-bound book and a couple of broken pencils.

"We aren't the first ones to fall down here," Keith said.

Shiro took one of the articles of clothing and shook it out, revealing a tank top. It was just the right size for the wolf-beast

"The wolf thing," Keith said. "It was… coherent? A thinking, sane alien? It's not just a random creature trapped in the caves?"

Shiro took a shaky breath. "It is possible that whoever owns all this is still here, or… the beast got it."

"One way to find out."

Keith opened the book. As he had hoped, there was writing inside. It was in a different language, so Keith tapped his wrist and held the holo-screen that popped up over the page.

"It's… Galra," Keith said.

Shiro glanced behind him, probably hearing more nonexistant sounds. "We can't stay here to read it. Leave it, and let's keep going."

"Just a tick."

Keith flipped through the journal, letting the holo-screen take picture of each page before moving on. Halfway through the book, Keith paused on a page where the writing was much larger, taking up the whole page for a single sentence. Keith let the holo-screen translate, then gave a sharp gasp before tapping on the holo-screen to read it aloud.

" _ **The pond water is driving me crazy."**_

* * *

" _ **I am not sure what to call this, exactly. A log? A journal? Well, I'm in a ship right now, so I suppose I'd better call it a log for now. Oh, ruggle, I was supposed to start with my name, wasn't I?"**_

Keith looked at Shiro. "What's a ruggle?"

"I'm not sure. Whoever wrote it, used it like Coran would use 'quiznak.' Keep going."

Keith turned back to his holo-screen. Having scanned all the pages, Keith and Shiro had continued walking while the suit computer read the journal aloud.

" _ **Now, I'll start off right. My name is Ira Dustpaw of the Sandlopers. Da told me that the 'Dustpaw' stands for the tribe that he was born in. 'Sandloper' means that his tribe lived in a desert, which I guess is a bunch of sand?"**_

" _ **I was born on the planet Nackana, but Da always told me that his home planet was called Cana. His whole planet was stolen and enslaved by the Galra (I suppose anyone reading this knows who they are) and I was born in slavery. I am sixty-five deca-pheobs old, and until three days ago, all I knew was being a slave to the Galra. Now, I am free."**_

Keith had to pause the reading. "An entire life of slavery?"

"It's been ten thousand years since Zarkon took over." Shiro shook his head. "That has probably become normal for many races."

Keith resumed the audio, and several pages passed of Ira explaining his growing up. His mother had died at his birth, but somehow Ira survived. He had worked since he could remember, first washing out the bins that the mining slaves used, then a relatively kind Galra overkeeper taught him to fly the shuttles that went between bases and actually taught him to read and write. His father had died in a mining accident twenty years before his escape.

Strangest of all to Keith, was the sense that Ira was younger than he had claimed at the start of the log. Something about the way he wrote so simply about things made him sound young. Keith knew that some aliens aged differently; how old had this Ira been?

" _ **I'm not sure how I am free. Some strange ships came and attacked, and the slaves were yelling that they were free. I came across an abandoned pod and took off. Lucky for me, my job at the camp was flying between camps, so I knew how to work the pod. I took nothing but the clothes I wore (not that I had anything else) and found some supplies in the pod. "**_

" _ **Maybe I should have brought others with me, but there was no one nearby and I didn't have time to wait. I hope they all got away."**_

" _ **I've been flying for three days now. I'm getting low on food, but there is a planet nearby that appears inhabited. Maybe there are no Galra there. Maybe I will find other Caneen. For all I know, I could be the only Dustpaw left."**_

Keith and Shiro listened as the log detailed Ira's travels. He visited several planets -getting supplies, meeting aliens, and joining in on the occasional rebel raid- before the log skipped ahead six years.

" _ **I almost forgot about this log. Well, with my ship crashed, there isn't a whole lot I can do. I'm hoping someone from the resistance will pass by soon, but I've had to survive on my own before, so I might as well make do."**_

A few days' worth of log passed, in which Ira built his own little base and explored. Then, the tone of the log changed drastically.

" _ **I'm really stuck now. I didn't notice a weak spot in the ground, and fell into some sort of tunnel. I have my pack with a few supplies and bedroll, but I hope to get out soon anyway."**_

Over a week's worth of log passed of nothing happening, in which Keith paused the audio again. He flipped through the images of the pages, seeing that the declaration about the water was near.

Keith realized he had stopped walking, and so had Shiro. They both stared at the holo-screen, gripping themselves for what was about to come.

" _ **One movement and two quintants since I fell into the cave."**_

" _ **I was exploring a new tunnel today, and found a pond of water. While inspecting it, I accidentally splashed water in my eye. I decided it wasn't really worth it; I trusted the flowing water I found elsewhere, over the water that has been sitting for who knows how long."**_

" _ **My eye feels kind of funny. I hope it doesn't get infected."**_

" _ **One movement and three quintants."**_

" _ **I was sure I saw something moving in the tunnel earlier, several times. But each time I checked, I didn't see anything. I thought I was alone in here, but apparently I am not."**_

" _ **I just saw something else. I'm sure it was a Galra, but it vanished without even a sound."**_

" _ **Something isn't right."**_

" _ **One movement and four quintants… I think."**_

" _ **I am exhausted from not being able to sleep last night, but I am unsure if one or two days have passed."**_

" _ **The things won't stop coming. Galra, cave beasts that I have only seen on Nackana, and other nameless creatures."**_

" _ **I got close enough to touch one of the things today; threw my knife at it. The knife when straight through. The things aren't real."**_

Then, the massive scrawl.

" _ **Quintant five or six? I am not sure of anything anymore."**_

" _ **It was the pond water, I'm sure of it. I covered my right eye, and the hallucinations all but stopped."**_

" _ **But now I am hearing things. I didn't get water in my ears, I'm sure of it. The water had something to do with it, but maybe it is the cave, too? I ran the length of a tunnel for an varga, then walked back to my camp in five doboshes. The tunnels aren't right, either, but it is the water that is the worst."**_

" _ **Another quintant after a restless night."**_

" _ **I cannot find my water source. All I find when I go in search is that cursed pool, but I can only imagine what would come of drinking that water."**_

" _ **The hallucinations are coming even though I keep my eye covered. There is no way to block them."**_

" _ **Another quintant. Possibly my last."**_

" _ **An image of a Galra frightened me, and I ran without watching my step. I fell into the pond. All is lost. Already, I see and hear things coming."**_

" _ **I am surrounded."**_

Keith flipped through the pages, feeling dread tighten in his stomach with each passing page of increasingly messy writing.

" _ **They won't stop coming. I ran, but they followed me. I am running in circles."**_

" _ **They nearly caught me."**_

" _ **They are everywhere."**_

" _ **I cannot escape. There is no escape."**_

" _ **They will catch me soon."**_

" _ **I hid all night in a crevasse, listening to them search."**_

" _ **I see them everywhere. They see me."**_

Keith slapped a hand down on the holo-screen, closing it. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

The wolf-beast had to have been Ira, overcome with a madness. And if they couldn't find a way to stop it, Keith was next.

 _That's what happens when you swim in untested waters._

" _Like I had a choice,"_ Keith thought.

When he finally decided to open his eyes, Shiro was watching him.

"Keith, did your face get wet in the pond?" Shiro slowly asked.

"My eyes. A little in my ears," Keith said in a small voice.

Shiro's expression didn't change. He turned his face to the ceiling, asking, "Hello? Can anyone outside hear us. We need an extraction, _now_."

While no voice came over the comm, Keith could have sworn that he heard a metallic clanking further down the tunnel.

* * *

Now that they knew someone had spent over a week in the tunnels without finding a way out, their best bet was where they had first fallen. They immediately turned and ran back, not even that surprised anymore when they found the pond in ten minutes and without passing Ira's camp. What _did_ surprise them was what -or, rather, _who-_ they found in the cave upon their arrival.

Ira was crouched at the edge of the pond. His lips were drawn back in a snarl that shook his entire frame.

Keith felt Shiro take his arm and move him away from the tunnel. Ira watched them with a narrowing eye.

Now that he knew that Ira wasn't in control of his own actions, Keith wasn't keen on hurting the alien. Which would actually make avoiding injury to himself or Shiro much harder, but he was pretty sure Shiro felt the same anyway.

"On the count of three, rush him and get him down the tunnel," Shiro murmured. "One… two… three!"

Keith and Shiro yelled and charged. Ira yowled at them, then leaped into the air. Keith spun around as he landed behind them, instinctively holding his sword in front of Shiro. Ira only took a second to regain his feet, then he was rushing the paladins. Spotting Shiro darting out of the way, Keith spun in the opposite direction.

Ira ran between them, coming to a skidding halt at the water's edge. He gave a distressed whimper, then darted backwards. Keith hoped he would just leave, but Ira pounced off to the side, managing to catch Shiro by surprise and knock him to the ground.

"Get off'a him!"

Keith dismissed his sword and leaped into Ira. He wrapped his arms around his middle and used his momentum to roll both over Shiro and to the ground. Keith tried to kick Ira away, but the crazed alien clamped his jaws onto Keith's arm. Keith yelled as his arm was jerked; the loud noise startled Ira enough that Keith was able to yank his arm free and roll away. When Ira leaped at him again, Keith kicked his feet into the air, flinging Ira over himself. Keith climbed to his feet while Ira got his paws under himself again.

Panting, Keith and Ira faced each other. Something moved out of the corner of Keith's eye, and he turned to see a huge, shaggy beast at the edge of the cave.

Crying out in alarm, Keith whipped out his blade and hurled it at the beast. The beast's mouth opened in a noiseless roar, then it vanished as Keith's blade passed through it.

 _Stop throwing at things that don't exist!_

A shout from Shiro brought Keith's attention back to Ira. He leaped at Keith, who barely had time to form his shield and raise it. Ira crashed into the shield, knocking Keith backward. He fell against Shiro, and heard a grunt followed by a thud and crack.

"Shiro?" Keith asked, spreading his arms and legs wide as he regained his balance. "Are you okay?"

When Shiro didn't respond, Keith glanced over his shoulder. His eyes widened upon seeing Shiro on the ground, unmoving. He started to turn, then realized Ira was preparing for another attack.

Keith flung up both hands in a "stop" gesture and yelled, "Ira!"

To Keith's surprise, Ira actually stopped. Already half-way into his leap, Ira performed a strange sort of dive that caused him to face-plant the ground in front of Keith.

Keith took an instinctive step back as Ira shakily rose to his paws. For the first time, there is a hint of coherence in Ira's eye.

"Get out." Despite the rasp of his voice, Ira sounded younger than Keith. "Cursed…"

"It's alright," Keith said quietly. "Nothing's going to hurt you."

Ira shook his head with a rumbling growl. "You're a fake, too."

Ira ran past Keith and down the tunnel before Keith could come up with a response. Keith started to run after him, but stopped himself. If he gave chase, Ira would probably just become violent again. Besides, he had to make sure Shiro wasn't badly injured.

Turning with a sigh, Keith crouched beside Shiro. He winced when he saw the large rock right beside Shiro's head, and was glad Shiro still had his helmet on. He carefully removed the helmet, and didn't see any cuts.

"Shiro." Keith softly shook Shiro, then harder when Shiro still didn't rouse. "Shiro!"

Keith rocked back on his heels, glancing around nervously. He hoped Shiro was just knocked out briefly, as he didn't have any solutions for a more severe injury. He frowned at the ceiling. Where was the rest of the team?

A clank made Keith spin around. He eyed the empty and silent cave, already not liking being the only one conscious.

He needed to talk, make noise to drown out hallucinations, but about what? Hunk would probably recite some of his favorite recipes, Pidge could go on for hours with her techy babble, and Lance could talk forever about… anything. Coran had enough stories to last a year's worth of silence, and Allura could talk about Altea. But Keith, everyone knew he was no talker.

Another clank made Keith cringe. Quiznak, he'd even take Lance to fill the silence. He looked at Shiro. What would he do?

Well, if he and Keith were the only ones there, he would probably talk about their lives back on Earth. Talk about what they would do when the upcoming battle with Zarkon was over. Maybe… the tunnel was creepy enough… he'd sing their song.

There were a few things about Shiro that only Keith knew, and one of those was a song from Shiro's childhood. It was strangely soothing for Keith, and had been sung on multiple occasions on dark nights when he missed his father.

Keith made himself sit down, even as a large shape flashed on the edge of his vision. Telling himself it was his imagination, Keith opened his mouth and was sincerely glad that no one was going to hear him sing.

Keith started to sing the old song that Shiro had taught him years ago. It was about a soldier boy returning home from war and, normally, was a very encouraging and light song. But, as Keith forced his wavery voice louder to drown out the rattling from down the tunnel, it only made him feel alone.

Keith fell silent, listening to his own voice echo back. He still smiled at the familiar words, despite his lingering nerves. He looked at Shiro, wondering if it was just his imagination or if Shiro was smiling a bit as well.

The scratch of claws on stone brought Keith swinging around again. His breath sped into panting as he desperately sought out the noise's source. After a long moment, Keith had to admit that it had been a hallucination.

Keith slowly turned back around, voice cracking as he began to sing again.

By the third time through the song, Keith spotted a small, ragged shape enter the cave that didn't disappear when Keith looked at him. He turned his head away and continued to sing.

By the sixth, exhaustion was replacing his fear. Halfway through the seventh, Keith's chin dropped to his chest and he drifted off.

* * *

Keith roused slowly, still feeling tired. He shifted, grunting a bit when his stiff body uncurled. He settled down, not opening his eyes while he tried to sort out the strange sound he was hearing.

It sounded like short, sharp puffs of wind. But that didn't make sense because he didn't feel any wind. There was a sort of wet edge on it, and Keith finally decided that it sounded like something breathing…

Like something huge breathing right over him!

Keith's eyes snapped open to see a huge, fanged muzzle above his head. He shouted and swung a fist at it, but the muzzle whipped away.

Keith flipped onto his hands and knees as the bear-beast he had been seeing backed away. It seemed to glare at Keith, then turned its head to where Shiro was still laying unmoving. It snarled, jaws opening as it took a step closer.

"Get back!"

Keith launched himself at the beast, forming his sword. The beast dodged away, then rose on its hind paws with a bellow. Undeterred, Keith stabbed his sword towards its stomach. The beast dodged away surprisingly fast, but Keith was right after it, swinging his sword at its side. The sword sliced right through its ribcage, with no resistance at all. Keith fell to the ground from his momentum, rolling quickly onto his back in time to see the beast dissipate.

"It was fake?" Keith said. Then, louder while he stood, "It was fake?!"

Keith barely stopped himself from flinging his sword to the ground, instead dismissing the weapon and wrapping his arms tightly around himself.

Keith would never admit to being afraid. Honestly, he rarely was. As long as he was breathing, Keith was a fighter. Any challenge he faced could be overcome, any disappointment could be turned to a success, any enemy in front of him could be beat.

Until now.

Keith couldn't fight a hallucination. He couldn't even ignore it, because how could one ignore something that looked realistic enough to bite your head off!

 _Pull yourself together!_

"When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it!" Keith snapped.

Then he blinked. He slapped a hand across his eyes. He'd never been so glad for Shiro to be unconscious and to be out of radio contact of the others.

After a moment to pull himself together, Keith lowered his hand and looked around. No hallucinations, and Ira had disappeared at some point. Spotting his knife still imbedded in the wall, Keith walked over and removed it. He turned around, and saw two Galra sentries standing over Shiro.

"Just my imag-"

When one of the sentries raised its gun, Keith decided he still couldn't risk it. He threw his knife at the sentry, taken by surprise when it struck the sentry in the middle and actually stuck.

A distinctly un-robot squeal filled the cave. Both sentries vanished, then a dark blob with wings fell to the ground with Keith's knife in it.

Keith slowly approached the thing, disconcerted by it. It was as big as his head, and seemed to be all teeth and large, fleshy wings. It wasn't moving, luckily.

Keith carefully extracted his knife with two fingers, then kicked the ugly thing into the pond.

"Biters."

Keith jumped and spun around. Ira had returned to crouch at the tunnel entrance.

"I call them biters," Ira said in his raspy voice. "Worse than the slimes, better than the shadows."

"I didn't think anything lived here."

"Things do. You just don't see them until it is too late. I think they can sense the hallucinations."

Keith studied Ira. "Why are you talking to me? Are you a hallucination, too?"

"As much as you are a hallucination to me." With that odd statement, Ira turned and loped into the darkness.

Keith stared after Ira for a moment, then shook himself. Whether or not Ira had been real didn't matter then. He turned to Shiro.

Shiro was still laying in the same place, in the same position. His face was clenched and his mouth moved in a slight murmur, but he seemed to be dreaming rather than in pain.

"Shiro?" Keith crouched beside him. "Hey, wake up."

Keith reached a hand to shake his shoulder, but as soon as his hand came in contact with Shiro's armor, the older paladin yelled. Keith jerked back, but was unprepared when Shiro's opposite hand shot up to hit him on the shoulder. He fell back, more startled than hurt, and was glad it had been Shiro's flesh hand.

"It's just me," Keith said when Shiro didn't open his eyes or make any further moves.

Shiro grunted in his sleep, mouth turning down as he muttered, "Keith."

"Yeah." Keith shook his head and stood, but froze at Shiro's next cry.

"Get back!"

Keith took a tentative step forward. Shiro abruptly sat up. His eyes were half-open but distant, as if he was still asleep. Keith remembered how wet the left side of Shiro's face had been from the pond, and realized with a groan that Shiro must have gotten pond water in his eye. Well, hallucination or one of his PTSD moments, Keith had to get him calmed down.

"Shiro, it's just me, Keith," Keith tried again.

Shiro's Galra arm powered up and he swung at Keith, forcing him to leap back. Shiro leaped to his feet and charged him. Keith dodged to the side.

"Shiro, wake up!"

Keith's shout only seemed to agitate Shiro, as he rushed at him again. While Keith spun out of the way of another attack -luckily, Shiro's coordination was terrible at that moment- he spotted the bear-beast approaching. He turned his back to it, determined to ignore the hallucination in favor of trying to calm Shiro.

Before Keith could start his next attempt, something crashed into his side. He staggered, then pain shot up his left arm. Keith screamed in pain and shock, then jerked his arm free with a harsher flare of pain and screech of metal. He whipped around, summoning his sword.

The bear-beast was there. It had _bitten_ him!

Shiro was starting to move again, forcing Keith to think fast. He slashed his sword at the bear-beast's face, then leaped off to the side. The bear-beast bellowed and turned to follow him, just as Shiro ran clear through its rump.

" _Great, just another hallucination,"_ Keith thought.

Keith lunged at the bear-beast with his sword in front of him. The bear-beast roared with his sword struck it, then dissolved into a smear of black on the ground. The smear didn't move or make a noise, even when Keith very confusedly poked it with his sword. He lifted the sword and saw black goop all along the edge.

"Hallucination, look out!"

At the familiar, but unexpected call, Keith turned. Shiro was charging him yet again. Rather than dodge, Keith dropped to the ground at the last second, drawing up his legs to catch Shiro and toss him over his head. He winced at the sound of Shiro hitting the ground, but when he checked, Shiro wasn't rising for another attack.

Keith sat up and looked at Ira, who had warned him. "My name is Keith."

Ira shrugged. "If that is what makes you happy. You're different from the other hallucinations."

"I'm not a hallucination," Keith said with a frustrated groan.

Ira gave an unconvinced grunt. "I've never seen a hallucination hurt another one."

Keith blinked, then pain returned in his arm like Ira's words had summoned them. He hesitantly checked the arm.

The arm itself had only a pair of scratches on it, but the armor had huge gashes in it. While Keith was watching, half of the armor simply fell to the ground.

"I am really not liking this place," Keith said, blinking away the images of two bat-like creatures overhead.

"Good luck finding a way out," Ira said, sprawling on the ground like a dog in the sun.

"Why are you even talking to me?"

Not that Keith wasn't grateful. When Ira was there and talking, he felt a little more in control. But from Ira's first violent attack and the scribblings at the end of his journal, Keith hadn't been expecting him to talk so sanely to him.

Ira twitched an ear in a careless manner. "I don't know. It's you, I think."

Keith nodded. If Ira had such an effect on him, he shouldn't have been surprised to learn that he was doing the same for Ira.

Keith turned back to Shiro, who hadn't moved since Keith threw him. He went to sit at the older paladin's side, sighing softly when Shiro didn't stir. He carefully replaced Shiro's helmet, not wanting him to hit his head if he had another fit.

"What's wrong with him?" Ira asked, lifting his head.

"Shiro suffers enough from nightmares and flashbacks. I think this cave is just too much for him, even though he was only half as infected with the water as me. Maybe its better if he's asleep until we are rescued."

Ira frowned. "Somebody's coming to rescue you?"

"Any minute now," Keith said, despite the fact it had been three days.

"Ah. Too bad your just a figment of my imagination," Ira said, lowering his head onto his crossed forepaws. "I could go with you."

"I'm not-" Keith gave up, laying down with his hands behind his head. "You'll see when they come."

* * *

Two days passed. Two days of dealing with hallucinations. Two days of fighting off biters, the smear/goo slimes, and the elusive shadows that gnawed relentlessly until Keith was able to strike them in their miniscule weak spot. Two days of struggling to contain Shiro as he was affected by his fits when he couldn't even recognize Keith.

If it wasn't for Ira, Keith knew he would have gone mad by the end of the first day. He provided a source of conversation, and watched Keith's back when the cave creatures showed up. He never came in contact with Keith -afraid of causing his "favorite hallucination" to vanish- but he once wrestled with Shiro when Keith was fighting off a shadow; later he commented that Shiro had been a very realistic rock. Keith didn't bother to correct him.

But they couldn't stay in the cave much longer. Besides the fact that Keith had accumulated multiple wounds that were wearing him down, they were nearly out of food. Ira had offered Keith some weird mossy stuff that he had been eating before Keith gave him some of their rations, but Keith didn't think he could stomach the stuff.

They had to get out, before they starved or the cave beasts beat them for good.

* * *

"Hello, Coran. Come in, Coran. Somebody on the Castle?"

Keith grunted at the silence over the comms. He jerked the last knot on the bandage on his right leg into place, and gingerly stretched it out. During the last tussle with a biter, Keith's leg brace had been crushed by the creature's jaws.

"Give it up," Ira said from where he was laying close-but-not-touching Keith. "Learn to eat the moss, and leave your unpredictable hallucination behind."

"For the last time, Shiro is not a hallucination. Neither am I, or you," Keith said tiredly.

Ira snorted.

"Look, I'll show you."

Keith stuck out a hand and pressed it to Ira's scarred side.

Ira acted like he had been stuck with a hot iron. He leaped to his paws with a distressed howl. Without looking at Keith, he pelted out of the cave.

Keith gaped after him, then scrambled to his feet. "Wait, Ira! Come back! It's okay!" Keith groaned. "Stupid! You knew he didn't want to be touched! He probably thinks I'm gone now."

 _Always chasing off new friends, huh?_

"Now you talk?" Keith spat at the blade that had been silent since he snapped at it.

When he got no response from Ira or the blade, Keith kicked the ground in frustration. He quickly regretted it, as his weak leg gave out. He collapsed to the ground with a pained cry.

Shiro jolted up, his eyes still glazed, like he had been doing when Keith made sounds of pain. Unfortunately, he always ended up targeting the one moving person in the cave: Keith.

Keith rolled away from a punch from Shiro's Galra arm, coming onto his knees to crawl out of immediate reach.

"Not now," Keith pleaded. "I need to get Ira back."

Keith's words had no effect on Shiro as he lurched to his feet. Unimpaired by injury or the tiredness of four hours sleep in two days, Shiro moved closer to Keith.

Keith hauled himself to his feet and formed his shield. He now knew that the shield couldn't completely hold off an attack from Shiro's powered arm -the gouge in the top left corner was proof of that- but he couldn't outwardly attack Shiro.

"Shiro, come on," Keith said, running out of range. "Just wake up. I _need_ you, Shiro!"

Shiro stiffened, then his expression hardened. He charged Keith, this time moving with Keith when the red paladin tried to dodge away. He caught Keith around the middle, and both went to the ground with Shiro on top. Keith's shield vanished when his arm struck the ground, his other hand holding his bayard pinned under Shiro's knee. Shiro raised his glowing arm over Keith's head.

"What have you done with him?" Shiro growled.

"Who?" Keith asked, trying to shift his legs to throw Shiro.

Shiro's Galra arm swept back, catching Keith's armored left leg. Pain jolted up the limb, so Keith froze, not wanting his weak leg to be hit next. In the next split-second, Shiro's arm was back over Shiro.

"Keith," Shiro said. "Where is he?"

Keith gaped at Shiro, then yelled, "I _am_ Keith!"

"Liar!"

Keith saw a swing coming, and jerked his head to the left. Shiro's hand smashed into the ground inches from Keith's head. Sheer terror at the near miss made Keith jerk his body to the left. Shiro swung, off-balance, and Keith was able to free a hand and shove himself free. He scrambled to get some distance from Shiro, then shakily stood.

"Shiro, please stop!"

Shiro seemed to be unable to connect Keith's words with the anguish behind them. Every time Keith spoke, Shiro responded like Keith was being hurt and the one speaking was doing it.

After ten minutes of ducking and dodging, Keith couldn't quite get out of the way of a low swing. His arm grazed Keith's exposed weak leg, making the whole leg collapse under him and sending him to the ground near the pond's edge. Keith couldn't hold back a scream at the attack. Shiro surged forward for another strike, but rage suddenly filled Keith.

Keith bunched up his legs, then kicked out his left leg as Shiro reached him. He caught Shiro right in the stomach, causing the older paladin to fold over with a harsh exhale and groan of pain. Keith kicked up, catching Shiro under chin hard enough to fling his helmet completely off. Shiro's head snapped back, then his legs crumpled out from under him. Keith rolled out of the way as Shiro collapsed limply to the ground.

Keith stayed where he was for a long minute, panting and blinking back tears of frustration and pain. Shiro was _attacking him_. It didn't matter if it was just defense, Keith couldn't stand fighting back.

Growling at the situation, Keith rolled onto his stomach and punched the ground. At the same moment, there was a massive crash from behind the left.

Already on edge, Keith yelped and flinched away from the sound. The ground vanished beneath him, and Keith's mouth opened to yell in surprise, when he struck water. Water filled his gaping mouth, and flooded his helmet again. He thrashed in a panic, accidentally sucking down a mouthful of water, before hands grabbed his arms.

Keith was forcefully hauled out of the water and onto solid ground. He coughed out water, dreadfully aware of the water still inside him. He clenched his body in on himself, becoming aware of a voice above him.

"Come on, Keith. Spit it out, you're okay. You didn't swallow that much."

That was… Lance's voice? Keith unrolled and turned his face up, squinting at the light shining in his face.

The light moved away as Lance turned his head to look at someone. "We've still got a red paladin!"

"Lance!" Hunk's voice protested.

Lance laughed and turned back to Keith, turning off his helmet light as he did. "Hey, man. You okay?"

Keith coughed and spat out more water. He shook his head, feeling shudders run through his frame. Lance's face turned worried.

"He's got chills or something," Lance said. "How's Shiro?"

"Unconscious, but he just has a few scrapes. Fall probably knocked him out," Hunk said.

Lance turned his attention back to Keith. "Do you think you can walk?"

Keith thought about the question, but his thoughts quickly went elsewhere. He had to be imagining Lance and Hunk. It had been five days. They couldn't really be there…

The water.

Keith had swallowed some water. If just a bit in his eyes made him see things, could swallowing some make him imagine his friends rescuing him so realistically that he could feel Lance's hands on his shoulders?

"You aren't real," Keith said, shoving Lance's hands away.

Lance -no, Not-Lance, Keith decided, since he couldn't be real- looked at his hands. He touched his arms, as if testing his own tangibility.

Not-Lance was joined by what sure seemed to be Hunk and Pidge, but Keith quickly decided they were fakes, too.

"What's he saying?" Not-Pidge asked.

"I think he hit his head," Not-Lance said. "Hunk, grab Shiro. Pidge and I will get loopy head here back to Yellow."

Keith watched Not-Hunk move away in a daze. Not-Lance moved behind him and hooked his hands under his shoulders, muttering at Keith to stand up. Keith ignored Not-Lance's orders; he didn't really feel like moving.

Until he saw Not-Hunk picking up Shiro.

It was a trick! Those shadow things were just pretending to be hallucinations of his friends so they could get Shiro!

"No!"

Keith slammed his elbows back into Not-Lance, freeing himself. He lurched to his feet, unsteadily charging Not-Hunk, who wisely released Shiro and rapidly moved away. Keith crouched beside Shiro, trying to determine which hallucination was the bigger threat.

"Keith, what are you doing?" Not-Lance demanded, walking forward.

Target picked, Keith summoned his sword. Not-Lance backpedalled, but Keith was already leaping at him. Not-Lance squawked and dodged away, while Not-Hunk intercepted with his shield. Keith's sword glanced off the shield, and Not-Lance tripped out his feet from under him. Keith crashed to his back, but was scrambling upright the next second.

"He's gone crazy!" Not-Lance yelped, ducking away from Keith's next swing.

Keith continued after them, swinging and slashing while the two fake paladins continued to evade his attacks. They never fought back, but moved too quickly for Keith.

A scrape from behind distracted Keith, and he turned to see Not-Pidge with her energy whip around Shiro. She was currently attempting to drag him toward the tunnel entrance, where a massive couldn't-be-real Yellow's head was poking through.

Realizing he was losing Shiro, he abandoned the other fake paladins. Ignoring their taunts, Keith rushed for Not-Pidge, who immediately started to try and free her energy whip from Shiro. Keith knew she wouldn't be fast enough, and drew back his sword for a powerful attack. Not-Pidge flinched, but hunched over Shiro, as if protecting him. Keith reached the pair and swung his sword down.

There was a shout, then a blue-and-white gun slipped in between Keith's sword and Pidge. Not-Lance slid in behind it, bracing himself as Keith continued to try and press down.

"Hunk!" Not-Lance yelled.

"What?! I can't shoot him!"

Not-Lance groaned, eyes clenching, as Keith's persistence began to force him down. His awkward half-crouch was rapidly losing strength. Even as Not-Lance was forced down, though, he didn't give up like Keith expected the hallucination to.

Instead, he gave a strained grunt, eyes snapping open with a fierce determination. A bright glow erupted from the gun, temporarily blinding Keith. In that moment, Not-Lance shoved back. Keith was knocked back a few steps.

Not-Lance straightened, lowering a new weapon: a blue-and-white sword. Not-Pidge gazed at the sword in shock, but Not-Lance didn't seem affected.

"Stop this, Keith," Not-Lance said. "We're your friends."

Keith snorted as he raised his sword. "Lance never had a sword."

Not-Lance's eyes slid back and forth as Not-Hunk and Not-Pidge moved behind him. He slightly lowered his stance, as Keith was doing, and raised his sword in challenge.

"You aren't hurting the team. Shiro is coming with us, and so are you if I have to drag you!"

"Let's see you try," Keith challenged.

Not-Lance yelled and charged Keith, who dodged away from the clumsy swing. He swung at Not-Lance, but the fake paladin ducked under the blade and danced out of reach. Keith moved after him, keeping a close eye on the other two fakes as they crouched beside Shiro. Neither tried to move him or hurt him, so Keith left them be until he could take care of Not-Lance.

The pair moved quickly through the cave. Not-Lance started by just dodging Keith's attacks, but soon gained confidence to make some attacks of his own. But Keith had more experience, and he knew when Not-Lance was off-balance. Still, no matter how many times he used an opening, Not-Lance continued to fight.

By the time both swordsboys drew back, Keith could barely feel his right leg. He was out of adrenaline, and running on raw fear for Shiro's life. Not-Lance was panting, his armor was scratched with a tear on one arm, and his sword drooped between attacks.

Keith lunged, already anticipating when Not-Lance would spin off to the left and get into a stance to swing himself. Keith swung his sword low, swiping Not-Lance's feet out from under him and sending him to the ground with an _oof!_

Keith raised his sword for the final blow, when the end of Not-Pidge's energy whip snaked out on his left side. It went taut, then snapped around his middle, wrapping around several times before running out of length. A jerk from the whip flung Keith to the ground.

"Stop fighting Lance!" Not-Pidge yelled, moving forward.

With the slack, Keith rolled to his knees and jerked his body forward. Not-Pidge squeaked and fell on her stomach.

Keith only had a moment of satisfaction, when it felt like fire was shooting through his limbs. A scream of agony ripped out of Keith's throat as he tried in vain to move away. But his whole body was caught in convulsions.

Not-Pidge screamed, then the feeling stopped as quickly as it came. Keith fell limply on his face, not even able to move a toe. His body started to twitch the slightest bit, while footsteps rushed to him.

Keith was rolled onto his back. His eyelids fluttered weakly, having a hard time even breathing properly through the involuntary spasms. The fake paladins were standing over him, yelling at him.

But the voices were growing dim. His eyes slid shut. His last thought before everything went dark was that he had failed.

* * *

Keith awoke to his body still twitching. It was only a little twitch about every ten seconds, and at that moment, Keith considered it the most annoying thing ever. It took him a while to notice someone was talking above him.

"We have the proper antidote at the Castle, but just being away from the xnandarian cave's influence will greatly improve his state of mind," Coran said.

"No wonder the cave makes people so crazy, I can't even say it!" Lance said.

For some reason, Keith believed the voices above him were real now. He decided not to wonder about that just then.

"How's Shiro doing?" Coran asked.

"He's waking up," Hunk responded.

Keith's mind flashed back to the last moments he remembered from the fight. He had screamed, and if the past few days had taught him anything, it was that if Shiro was waking up, it would not end well!

Keith forced his eyes open, a groan grinding out from his clenched teeth when the action made his twitching intensify.

Coran and Lance were crouched over him, watching him when Keith's eyes finally focused. The latter seemed wary, and if Keith memories falling into place were correct, he didn't blame him.

"Sh-Sh'o… w'k… t'ck," Keith slurred out, mouth frustratingly uncooperative.

"Coran?" Lance questioned.

"Completely normal," Coran said cheerfully. He looked at Keith. "It would be best if you didn't try to talk until the effects of the shock wear off, my boy."

Keith groaned. He managed to roll his head to the left, where he could hear Pidge and Hunk's voices coming from.

Shiro was sitting up with Hunk's help. His eyes were finally clear and he was moving slowly and carefully. Pidge was crouched on his other side, inspecting his armor.

"There's barely a scratch on Shiro," Pidge reported. She looked at Keith, a flash of guilt crossing her face. "What happened to you?"

Keith grimaced at her. "'s, if… oo, dn'o."

Pidge, somehow understanding, gave him a tentative smirk. Keith returned it with a grin, though his face when slack after the next twitch.

"Sorry." Pidge moved to Keith's side. "My bayard was set kind of high, and I accidentally turned it on when you pulled me over."

Keith huffed out a laugh that turned into a groan as his feet started to tingle. Coran clicked his tongue and began to massage Keith's exposed arms.

"You'll start getting feeling back in your body soon," Coran said. Lance took Coran's place, and the advisor moved so he could lift Keith into a seated position. "From the extent of your injuries, it might be best to get you into a pod before then."

"Keith?" Shiro, now standing with Hunk's help, turned his attention to Keith. "What happened?"

Keith twitched his shoulders in the semblance of a shrug. Shiro's expression turned worried, and he moved quickly closer. He crouched beside Keith, reaching out a hand…

Keith couldn't help it. He flinched backward, an embarrassing whimper escaping his lips.

Pidge and Hunk froze. Lance's hands stilled on Keith's arm, while Coran briefly held Keith closer. Shiro slowly shifted away.

"What's the matter, boy?" Coran asked softly.

Keith forced his left arm to raise up and rest on his legs. He twitched it closer to the burn on his leg arm. The burn was the exact size of Shiro's hand and held the vague shape.

"D'nt mn… co-co'dn't he'p," Keith slurred out. "Sc'rd… w'ter… m-m'de h'm… th-th'k… ah… h'rt. Th'k ah… b'd."

"Shiro thought you were the enemy?" Coran translated.

Keith inclined his head. "L'k… l-like ah… t'tack'd o'ter."

"Coran said the water could have made you attack us," Lance said. "You must have swallowed some before I fished you out."

"And swallowing the water makes the effects ten times worse!" Coran informed him. "Just removing you from the xandarian cave systems would have been no help."

Keith stared at Coran. He wasn't having any hallucinations then, though.

Coran nodded at Keith. "Luckily, Pidge's impromptu form of containing you, also caused your body to forcefully expel the source of your confusion."

Keith raised his eyebrows slightly as his tired brain sorted through what Coran had said. He wasn't quite successful before his blade chimed in.

 _You threw up._

Keith blinked. "S'rry."

"Aw, Keith." Pidge leaned forward to briefly hug Keith. "Don't apologize. You had no control over yourself. It had to have been a rough couple of hours."

"'Ers? N'... f'v… d's."

"Five days?" Lance looked at Coran, who shrugged.

"Time and the tunnels can change in a second in those tunnels. That would explain the extent of the injuries, if Keith spent five days his time in there," Coran said.

Keith tiredly shrugged. He didn't feel like trying to sort out how time worked while he was gone. He was exhausted, sore, and he still felt bad about attacking the paladins. He rolled his head over toward Shiro.

Shiro's expression was still full of guilt. Keith tried to smile at him to tell him it was okay. He was no more at fault than Keith had been.

Shiro must have seen something in the look, because he reached out hesitantly. Keith hummed in agreement and shifted forward. Coran helped him sit up, then Shiro's arms wrapped around him. Keith involuntarily tensed, but managed to relax after a moment. Shiro's hand pressed gently to the back of Keith's head, so that his chin rested on Shiro's shoulder.

From his new vantage point, he could see the lions crouched around a Yellow-sized hole in the ground. While Keith watched, a small shape slowly emerged from the hole.

Ira gazed around at the sky with awe. After a moment, he rose onto his hind paws. One forepaw removed the cloth from his covered eye as he turned and met Keith's eyes.

Joy filled Ira's face. He nodded to Keith, then turned and loped up the mound of dirt.

Keith smiled, eyes drifting shut once again. He could feel sleep coming on him, and for the first time in five days, he wasn't afraid of the darkness.

And, as he felt Shiro's grip shift so he could carefully lift him, Keith could have sworn that he heard Shiro humming the tune of his childhood song.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Up next: While evacuating a resistance base, Keith is cut off from the team. Even as he is rescued, the fight is far from over as the team is put to the test to keep Keith alive.**


	5. Keith

**A/N: Longest chapter yet! It does rather jump around a lot, though, because it takes place over a much longer time frame... I maybe should have divided the chapters into chapters. Anyway, if you think scenes should be revised, expanded, or removed (one section of scenes in particular would make a fun one-shot) please PM or review it to me! Because I have a lot of stuff here. Weirdly grim Matt, overly cautious paladins, out of the blue humor, and Lance swearing like a rabbit.**

 **This is post-season six, but way canon divergent. I won't say how, except that Shiro returned as black paladin after being brought back to life. The other parts will be pretty obvious if you have seen season seven. I had the whole story in my head before watching season seven, so the In' trilogy is officially an AU.**

 **Ira (who's appearance is slightly modified) is the same type of alien as Olia (from season four and briefly in season seven), which I call Caneen.**

* * *

If there was anything that Matt had decided in the last week, it was that leader-less Galra were _so_ much worse than when they were led by Zarkon. At least when Zarkon ruled, he kept them under a tight enough reign that there weren't scores of them hiding in all the decent hiding holes across the universe.

It was bad enough when a band of the resistance was on the move and couldn't find a spot to rest, but it was even worse when some high-minded Galra who must've headed a sentry factory or something decided that _he_ wanted to take over a place with a base already there.

Which is exactly what had happened at the base Matt currently resided at.

* * *

"Status, Eni!" Matt barked over the comm on his wrist.

"Final ships are being loaded now," Eni responded. "But there are too many sentries blocking the hanger!"

Matt groaned. He pressed his back to the column that he had taken refuge behind. Beside him crouched Olia, who would occasionally sneak out her energy pistol into the open to fire at the approaching sentries. The rest of the defending rebels were under cover on various sections of the crumbling base.

"The ships can't launch. Too many sentries are blocking them off," Matt told Olia.

Olia narrowed her eyes, tail weaving across the stone while she thought. Her eyes went from their shelter's edge, to the hanger doors straight across from their position.

"It's risky, but we could run over there and clear out the sentries briefly," Olia said.

"Risky?" Matt laughed drily. "It's beyond risky."

Olia's ears lowered. "Not worth it?"

Matt tightened his grip on the staff. "Totally worth it."

Olia grinned recklessly and broke away from their cover, with Matt on her heels. The pair charged into the group of sentries. In the close quarters, Olia put away her pistol in favor of a retractable staff like Matt's while the sentries' blasters formed into swords. Matt and Olia went back-to-back, destroying sentry after sentry with powerful swings of their staffs.

However, despite their determination, there was too many sentries. Matt was quickly getting tired, and when he found his staff jammed in the sentry he had just struck, he was suddenly defenseless. A sentry noticed this right off, and raised its sword to strike. Matt's mind raced for an escape, but then something stopped the sentry from swinging.

The sentry jerked it's arms, then lifted its head. Matt tentatively followed the look, and saw a familiar neon green whip coiled around the sentry's wrists. Before the sentry could make a move to escape, something slashed through its middle and it collapsed to the ground to reveal a -mostly- familiar figure.

"Shi-... ro?"

The second part came out like a question, but Matt couldn't help it. Shiro looked so different, with his fully-white hair and lack of a prosthetic. His flesh arm was covered in some sort of over-sized, black and white gauntlet. Its spiked sides reached all the way to his elbow.

"Matt!" Shiro said, smiling at him.

Pidge rounded Shiro and collided with Matt, knocking him back a step. She wrapped her arms around his middle. She, at least, looked normal aside from a few new dings in her armor.

"Finally decide to show up?" Olia joked, replacing her staff.

Matt finally looked away from Pidge hugging him like her life depended on it. The sentries around them had been finished off by Hunk and Lance. Further back, Keith fought with his Blade of Marmora sword, side-by-side with a Galran woman with a blaster, quickly cutting down the sentries that had cornered the resistance defenders. Allura was darting in and out of the columns, taking out stragglers.

"Where have you guys been?" Matt said, prying Pidge away from his middle. "You all vanished a week ago. Are you okay?"

Pidge and Shiro traded looks, then nodded. Matt narrowed his eyes, unconvinced, but they were saved from further questions when Lance ran up. He gave Matt a playful salute.

"The base is cleared, Commander!"

Matt glanced back to see that Keith, Allura, and the Galra were now standing in the empty courtyard. A strange blue and black wolf pranced around them, watching curiously as rebels darted out of their hiding places for the hanger.

Seeing the running rebels reminded Matt of what was going on elsewhere. He quickly lifted his arm and spoke into the comm.

"Gamma Team, the courtyard has been cleared! Evacuate your position, and get to a ship, now!" Matt grimaced at the paladins. "Now would be a good time to clear out. There's a huge force of sentries on the other side of the base, and Gamma Team has been blockading them back until now."

"We'll help hold them back until the ships take off," Shiro said.

Matt nodded gratefully, then turned to Olia. "You'd better get to a ship."

"Will you?" Olia asked.

"I'll stick with the paladins, and catch a ride with them."

Olia smirked. "Well, then I'd better stick around here. Somebody's got to watch your back."

Matt didn't bother arguing with the stubborn Caneen. As the Gamma Team appeared to find a ship, Shiro divided the team into groups.

Hunk and Lance were to stay back and provide cover fire, with Allura watching their backs. Matt was going to stick close to Shiro, Pidge, and Olia in the middle of the courtyard, while Keith, the Galran woman -who's name was Krolia- and their wolf would use the columns as cover while they took out sentries one at a time.

It was an effective plan, and the group was able to keep the sentries back while every resistance ship left the base. Unfortunately, there was way more sentries than Matt had first accounted for. It wasn't long before he lost sight of Shiro and Olia; he barely was able to keep Pidge close. Lance ran by with a blue-and-white broadsword, and Olia rejoined Matt and Pidge with her staff before Matt sent her to aid Hunk.

Shiro was suddenly at Matt's side. He panted out, "We've done as much as we can. We've got to retreat now."

Matt nodded and broke away to find Olia, trusting Shiro to keep an eye on Pidge. He found Olia and Allura covering Hunk while he made a break for the rocks that the paladins had first come from. The wolf ran to the bigger boy's side and touched him with his nose. Both Hunk and wolf vanished in a flash of light.

"That's our cue!" Allura said, grabbing Matt's arm and pulling him into a run.

Olia put away her weapon and dropped to all fours to run beside Matt. The trio rounded the stones, and found Hunk, the wolf, and Krolia in front of the green lion. Shiro and Pidge were close behind, and Lance brought up the rear.

The group clustered briefly before running into Green's cargo hold. The wolf looked around at them, then vanished in another flash of light. Pidge ran to the cockpit as everyone clapped each other on the shoulder and checked each other over.

After a moment, they glanced around at the group, feeling a strange sense that something was off.

In the next instant, Shiro and Lance jumped when their respective lions gave a mental roar of panic over their former paladin. Krolia started at the loud sarcastic voice in her head.

"Keith!" Shiro and Krolia said at the same time, then they looked at each other with raised brows.

"Wasn't he with you?" Hunk asked Krolia.

"I sent him to assist Lance, while Kosmo and I got you to safety," Krolia said, calm despite her rising worry.

"I haven't seen him since we split into groups!" Lance clutched his helmet. "Cheese and crackers, tell me we didn't leave one of our own members on the ground!"

No one spoke. Matt ran to the cockpit, where he found Pidge talking with Coran and -Matt got the feeling he had a lot to catch up on- an Altean woman.

"Ah, Matt!" Coran said, spotting him. "I was hoping-"

"We have to go back for Keith," Matt said, cutting him off.

Pidge frowned at him. "What did he do?"

"He never got into the lion!"

"You lost a teammate?" asked the Altean woman, her accent more pronounced than Allura's or Coran's. "How do you manage that?"

"Not now, Romelle," Pidge growled, grabbing the controls to spin Green around.

"To be fair, Keith's always either leading the group to safety or watching our backs. He's never needed the team to check up on him." Matt thought for a moment. Okay, that was a horrible excuse. He looked at Pidge. "Can you lock onto Keith's suit?"

"Not now. Our suits all needed recalibrated after the battle in the quintessence field." Pidge glanced at Matt. "I'll explain later. I never got to Keith's."

Matt narrowed his eyes as Green came in for a landing. "Shouldn't you cloak?"

Pidge winced. "Can't. Another thing to explain later. Come on!"

The whole group ran out of Green. They ran into the courtyard, halfway expecting Keith to still be battling it out or at least surrounded by destroyed sentries.

All that remained in the courtyard was a few damaged sentries weaving through the remains of the other robots, which Lance and Hunk quickly took out.

Pidge scanned the courtyard. "Where is he? Keith!"

"I last saw him going this way," Krolia said.

Everyone followed Krolia as she headed into the columns. She paced quickly back and forth, while the team strained their ears for some sound of Keith.

A whining sound caught Krolia's attention. She jerked upright and followed the whining, rounding several columns before coming to a stop.

Keith's wolf was sprawled on the ground. He was struggling to stand, but his shaking legs kept giving out. Krolia walked quickly to Kosmo to lay a hand on his head. The wolf calmed, then turned his head with a whine. Krolia looked on his other side, and gave a tiny gasp.

In the ground, imbedded up to the hilt, was Keith's Marmoran blade. There were deep scratches around it, as if Keith had been attempting to use it to hold himself in place.

Krolia yanked the blade free, then looked around. She and the others spotted the drops of blood at the same time. The drops were leading down the path that curved around the base, where the sentries had come from.

Everyone looked at each other, then down the path. Krolia ran forward, her blade expanding to its full length. She glanced at the glowing emblem on the hilt, eyes widening when she realized the right side of the emblem was flickering.

"What's with the blade?" Pidge asked, keeping pace with Krolia. The others were close behind, though Shiro trailed since he had picked up the injured wolf.

"The blades are connected to a Marmoran's life force. In Keith's and my case, it is both of us. Keith's life force is on the right."

"Nope, not happening," Lance said, having caught up in time to hear the last part. He eyed the flickering emblem. "If Keith gets himself killed, I'm going to kill him!"

Olia glanced at Matt. "Wouldn't that be impossible?"

Lance heard her comment and shouted over his shoulder, "Then I'll have Allura bring him back to life, so I can kill him myself!"

"Stop!"

Krolia ground to a stop. She threw out her arms, catching Pidge across the shoulder suddenly enough that Pidge's legs kicked out from under her. She would have fallen, but Matt was right behind her, and he managed to catch her. Everyone else came to a more graceful halt.

"What is it?" Allura asked, then realized the ground was shaking.

A rumbling roar filled the air. A cruiser that had previously been out of sight slowly lifted into the sky. Everyone knew, without a doubt, that Keith was on the ship.

"Oh, no, no!"

Lance started to run forward, but Hunk grabbed his arm. Pidge and Krolia were already running back in the direction of Green. Hunk took the wolf from Shiro, then everyone followed Pidge and Krolia.

"What should we do, Shiro?" Pidge asked as she went to the cockpit with Shiro and Matt. "I don't think Green is ready to handle a cruiser alone, especially if they have fighters."

Matt raised his eyebrows, briefly wishing he had paper to write down everything he had to ask Pidge about once they had Keith.

"Keep your distance and scan the ship for heat signatures," Shiro said. "Then we'll cloak and go in low. Krolia, Lance, and I will go for Keith. Matt, you, Hunk, and Allura get to the engine room and see if you can rig the cruiser to blow. We can't have them following once we free Keith."

As much as Pidge wanted to just rush the cruiser, she slowed Green and began scans. She swiped up a holo-screen to show a diagram of the ship. Aside from the many yellow blips that meant sentries, there was a single red spot signifying something alive.

"It's all sentries," Shiro said, slightly confused.

"There was a warlord-wannabe overseeing the production of sentries on a planet not far from here," Matt explained. "When the Galra leadership became questionable, he started building himself an army of sentries. He's at his base, while his sentries tried to take over a new base for him."

"That will make it easier, then," Shiro said. "Pidge, cloak Green and take us in."

Pidge pressed a few buttons on Green's console. A low beeping started up, and Pidge winced.

"We have half a dobosh," she said.

"Get as close as you can, then go back until we're in position."

Everyone but Pidge and the wolf gathered in Green's mouth. On Shiro's command, Green's mouth opened and everyone jumped into space. Green had dropped them just below a ship, and they slowly approached until they found an airlock.

"Hold up," Hunk said before Krolia could open the airlock. "They can't know that we're coming."

"And how do you suggest getting inside without using the airlock?" Krolia asked testily.

"We use a backdoor," Matt answered.

Lance and Olia joined Krolia on giving Matt strange looks. Matt didn't explain, but set to work on prying off a panel below the scanner. He fiddled with a few wires, then the airlock opened. Hunk, knowing what Matt had done, hustled everyone inside seconds before it closed again. The room pressurized, then opened into the rest of the cruiser. The group hurried in.

"How was that any different?" Krolia asked.

"Because as far as anyone on the bridge is concerned, the airlock suffered a malfunction," Matt said. "Now let's get out of here before sentries show up to investigate."

The two determined groups split in separate direction. Krolia led Shiro and Lance in the quickest path to the cells, while Matt pulled up schematics of the cruiser to lead Hunk, Allura, and Olia toward the engine room.

* * *

Aside from dodging out of sight of a couple patrols, the rescue team reached the cells without incident.

Lance scanned the cells with his guns to find the signature of Keith's suit, finally finding him in the corner of the farthest cell. He pointed to the cell, and Krolia set to work on the door.

"Keith, it's just us," Lance whispered, knowing there was a high chance that Keith would try to jump the next person opening the door.

The door slid open. Shiro glanced up and down the hall for sentries, while Krolia's motions on the screen became frantic to try and keep an alert from reaching the bridge.

"Keith, come on!" Lance hissed when Keith didn't make a move. When Keith still didn't respond, Lance groaned and stalked inside. "Mullet, now isn't the time for sleeping," Lance said grumpily. He reached Keith's side, watching the door as he walked. "Get up, or we're-" Lance stopped as he looked down. For a split-second, he couldn't breathe. Then, he yelled, "Keith!"

"Lance!" Shiro and Krolia hissed.

Krolia glanced from the screen. In the next second, lights began to flash in the halls and alarms blared.

"Shiro!" Lance yelled, a new edge of panic in his voice making chills run down Shiro's back.

Shiro and Krolia rushed to Lance's side. The boy was already on his knees, ripping off his gloves.

Keith's helmet was missing, allowing the team to see his sheet white face. His breath came in short puffs, and his expression was tight with pain. There was blood in his hair and burns on his armor. Something was horribly wrong with his right leg. The leg was turned unnaturally, and the armor was crushed too badly to clearly see the damage.

"Shiro!" Lance said in rising panic.

Lance's gloves were pressed against a gouge on the lower half of Keith's leg armor. The gloves were already soaked after just a second.

"What's going on, why are you screaming?" Hunk demanded over the comms. "And what's with the alarms?!"

"Finish your job and meet us halfway," Shiro said, crouching beside Lance to take his place. "Krolia, help me stabilize his leg. Pidge, Keith doesn't have his helmet and we don't have time to search for it. You'll have to meet us inside."

Krolia glanced at Shiro, then shrugged off the statement for more important issues. She and Shiro shifted Keith's leg back into position as carefully as they could. Lance pulled off a piece of his leg armor for a brace, then ran to the door when he heard approaching footsteps.

"Sentries!" Lance formed his rifle and shot at the sentries.

"We have to move," Shiro murmured, tying the last glove in place to hold the brace.

Krolia nodded tersely, though she took a moment to brush a hand across Keith's forehead. She gently worked her hands under Keith's lanky frame and lifted him. Keith groaned at being moved, and Krolia briefly held him closer to murmur in his ear.

Shiro went around to find the head wound and found a small cut with the blood already crusting. She shook his head, guessing that a blow to the head was the only reason the sentries had gotten him to the ship.

Lance ducked back into the cell. "The way's clear, but we have to go _now!_ "

Krolia abruptly turned to Shiro. "Take Keith and protect him with your shield. Lance and I will cover you."

Shiro nodded. He dismissed his gauntlet and bayard and carefully took Keith. He winced sympathetically when Keith groaned during the transference.

"I know, buddy. Let's get you out of here."

Shiro nodded to Krolia and Lance. Lance peeked out the door, then waved for the others to follow. The trio had just stepped into the hall when Hunk gave a shout, making them all jump.

"Matt, you didn't-!"

"I did, now let's move," Matt said back, more fiercely than normal. "I don't have any other kinds on me, okay?"

"What?" asked Shiro, Krolia, Lance, and Allura all at once.

"It's no big deal, just hurry up and meet us at an outside wall on the… fifth sector," Matt said.

"That's one floor above us," Krolia said. "Follow me."

* * *

After splitting up, the sabotage team encountered a patrol, but Allura and Matt were able to take the sentries out almost silently. They hurried on, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the sentries were found.

The team reached the crystal room, and Matt peeked in. He spotted two sentries at the console, and held up two fingers to Olia. The Caneen nodded. Matt swung open the door, and Olia shot the sentries before they could react.

Matt hurried to the console and ducked underneath to start fiddling with wires. Hunk accessed the console with one of the sentry hands, then started downloading data that he knew Pidge and Matt would want later.

"Hey, Hunk?" Matt said. "Any chance you have a detonator on you?"

Hunk glanced down. "Uh, no. Why?"

"We can't set this to blow on a timer. The sentries could disable it, or we might be slower than we want in getting out." Matt leaned over to jerk off another panel. "I guess I'll just have to rig something up."

Matt had just started working on a detonator, when alarms began to blare. Hunk jumped about a foot in the air, and Matt tried to sit up so quickly that he slammed his head on the underside of the console.

Shouts came from the rescue team, mostly Lance yelling Shiro's name.

"What's going on, why are you screaming?" Hunk demanded, linking his comm with the rescue team. "And what's with the alarms?!"

"Finish your job and meet us halfway," Shiro said, then started giving orders to Krolia and Pidge.

Matt hurried to finish with the console. He shoved away the parts he had gathered, realizing he didn't have time to make a detonator.

"Matt, hurry," Olia said, hearing the clank of approaching sentries.

"I'm trying!"

Matt dug around in his pockets and pulled out his last resort. He hurriedly made the connection, then stood. Hunk glanced at him, and raised his eyebrows.

"Did you figure out a detonator?"

"Yeah, but," Matt opened his hand, "You aren't going to like it."

* * *

The rescue team moved as quickly as they dared. Shiro's hold on Keith was a bit awkward, admittedly, but Krolia didn't have a shield and Lance wouldn't be able to carry Keith the whole way. Shiro ended up forming his shield and letting it hold a majority of Keith's frame.

Twice they encountered sentries that Lance and Krolia managed to take out while Shiro shielded Keith, but managed to get to the proper sector quickly and without injury.

"We're here," Shiro said, glancing at the flashing red lights.

A door opposite of the rescue team opened. Lance and Krolia moved in front of Shiro, then relaxed when the sabotage team entered.

"So are we," Hunk said, casting a terse glance at Matt.

The rescue team looked at Matt, unable to determine what he had done to upset Hunk. The boy held his staff in his right hand and had his left hand in a white-knuckle fist, but nothing was out of the ordinary. At the same time, the sabotage team spotted Keith.

"Pidge, now would be great!" Matt said, voice raising an octave. His left arm started to shake.

"Chill out, man!" Hunk said, eyeing his clenched hand. "I'd like to get off this ship in one piece!"

"What did you do?" Shiro asked Matt.

Matt raised his clenched hand. "Resistance fighters carry only one type of detonator."

Matt's statement was nearly lost Lance and Allura. Shiro narrowed his eyes and was about to add his input for Pidge to hurry, when the doors on both ends of the hall hummed open.

Lance's gun flashed up, shooting twice in rapid succession to take out the two sentries in the doorway. There was laserfire from behind, then a strike on his back made Shiro gasp and stagger. Allura quickly stepped to the side and shot her bayard chain. The blasts stopped, and Krolia darted past Shiro. Matt was about to follow, but Olia firmly told him to stay back and stepped around Shiro to help Krolia.

"I'm coming in, get down!" Pidge suddenly yelled.

The entire cruiser was thrown the the side by Green's impact. Everyone was thrown to the ground, Shiro angling his body to take the impact of striking the wall and half the others yelling in panic at the sight of Matt running smack into the wall. Green's head burst through the wall, and her body armor sunk into the metal to form a temporary seal.

"Matt!" Olia yelped, scrambling to her paws.

"I got it, I'm good!" Matt held up his left fist.

Lance and Allura exchanged confused looks, then focused on helping Hunk and Shiro stand. Most of the sentries had been smashed by Green's entrance, the teams were able to hurry into Green's mouth.

Shiro scanned the group, ensuring he had everyone this time. "We're in! Go, Pidge!"

Green's mouth clamped shut and she wretched her way out of the ship, gouging out several exterior walls as she did. She kicked off the cruiser and sped off as fast as the exhausted lion could go.

"We're clear!" Pidge said.

Matt opened his left hand. There was a barely audible _click_ , then a muffled explosion. Green rocked slightly, then steadied out.

Lance gaped at the detonator in Matt's hand. "Dude! That's a dead-man's switch."

"Only kind the resistance carries," Matt said, tossing the detonator aside and shaking out his cramped hand.

"Harsh."

Shiro shook his head and moved into Green's hold. Krolia followed him, and the others left off their conversations to follow as well.

Pidge bounded down from the cockpit, beaming while the wolf limped behind her. "That was gr- what the quiznak happened to Keith?!"

Shiro laid the boy on the beds in the hold. "We found him like this. Krolia, help me."

Shiro and Krolia bent over Keith's leg, which looked worse than ever. The pair worked together to pry away Keith's leg armor. Shiro had been halfway hoping that the damage wasn't as bad as it first appeared, but it was only worse.

The leg had multiple cuts, straight through the underarmor. The brace was shattered, and bile rose in Shiro's throat when he saw several of the rods embedded in Keith's skin. The skin was an ugly bruised color with gashes down to the muscle. Carefully moving some of the underarmor revealed a large slice in Keith's leg, with the unmistakable white of bone sticking out from under the skin.

Hunk gagged and clapped a hand to his mouth, but Pidge beat him to it. She rushed across the hold and stuck her head into an empty bucket, then promptly threw up.

"Every tick the bone is exposed through the skin, the risk of infection increases," Krolia said, ignoring Pidge. "We need to set the bone."

At that moment, Keith groaned and moved his head. Everyone froze, Shiro and Matt in the process of removing some more of the underarmor.

"Don't wake up now!" Lance hissed.

Keith's eyelids fluttered, and he let out a louder groan. He started to shift his body, and Shiro and Krolia had to hurriedly grab him before he could move. Still, there was a grating scratch from the leg that sent Hunk to join Pidge.

"Do we have any sedatives?" Krolia asked.

Lance snapped his fingers. "No, but we have something even better. Cold medicine!"

Matt gave Lance an odd look as the red paladin ran off. "We'll keep that in mind if he starts sneezing."

Pidge briefly lifted her head to explain. "No, Lance is right. Altean medicine messes with a Galra immune system like crazy. Last time Keith had cold medicine, it knocked him out for an entire day."

"Yeah, and don't ask what the laughing gas did to him," Lance said, returning with a small box.

Matt raised his eyebrows, wanting to ask just that.

Krolia lifted Keith's shoulders and Olia held his head up while Lance poured a bit of liquid into his mouth. Krolia laid Keith back down, holding his shoulders until the medicine took affect and he was still again.

"I'll move the bone into position," Krolia said. "Unless that is some strong medicine, he will resist. Shiro, hold the upper part of his leg. Lance and…?"

"Matt and Olia," Matt supplied.

"Lance and Matt, hold his arms. Allura, you monitor his vitals and Olia will hold supplies." Krolia looked at Pidge and Hunk, both still losing their lunches, then at the others. "We need a proper splint, something to tie it with, and bandages for the cuts."

The group gathered the necessary supplies. Pidge and Hunk were sent to the cockpit, both to keep the Green Lion moving and because things were only going to get worse.

Once everything was prepared, Krolia stood at the foot of the bed. "Is everyone ready?"

The rest of the team got into position and nodded. Not that anyone could be ready for the awful scream that ripped out of Keith's throat when Krolia shoved the bone into place.

* * *

An hour later, Pidge was still shaking from the scream. Her hands had a white-knuckle grip on the controls, but at least she hadn't had to use the bucket beside the seat.

There wasn't much sound coming from the hold, aside from the occasional murmur as they finishing patching up Keith.

Finally, Matt entered the hold. He slowly walked up to sit cross-legged beside Pidge and rested his face in his hands.

"Matt?"

"The bone's set. His leg is bandaged. He's stable for now." Matt drew in a shuddering breath. "That was the worst medical procedure I've ever seen."

"His leg has been bad for a year now," Pidge commented quietly. "How long before he can walk again?"

Matt was silent for a concerningly long time before he spoke. "Krolia isn't sure. The damage to his leg…"

No one had the heart to talk after that.

* * *

"We need supplies," Coran said the next day.

Everyone looked at Coran, either in person or on the screen to see where he stood behind Allura. The team had met up with Coran and Romelle, and resumed their flight in the lions.

"We have supplies," Hunk said, glancing behind him at said supplies.

"Not what we need for Keith," said Krolia, who was riding with Shiro. She glanced over her shoulder to where Keith laid in the hold. "He needs medicine that won't simply knock him out, more bandages, and something for a proper cast and splint."

"There's a trading planet near here," Matt said, leaning around Pidge. "It's Galra occupied, but peaceful. The resistance uses it a lot for trading."

"We're in no position to be spotted by the Galra," Shiro said. "Not until the lions are fully charged and Keith is out of danger."

Everyone was silent for a moment. It was probably too soon to hope for improvement, but Keith seemed to have gotten worse overnight.

"If Olia and I go down there, some of the shopkeepers know us. We could get the supplies for a cast and new brace."

"What about the medicine?" Hunk asked.

"We could ask around," Olia said from behind Matt.

"It could take too long with just the two of you," Shiro said. "Not to mention how suspicious it would look, just the two of you getting the things we need."

"Coran, Romelle, and I can go with them," Allura suggested. "We can change our appearance so the Galra don't realize we are Altean."

"I should go down there, too," Hunk said. "I know the medicines that are safe and effective for Keith."

"Hunk, you'd be spotted in a second," Matt said. "I have to disguise myself as it is, because Galra are suspicious of humans. They think all humans are part of the Coalition." Matt paused. "Well, they aren't wrong."

"We could wear masks," Pidge said.

Matt looked down at her. "I'm sorry. 'We?'"

Pidge rolled her eyes. "Like you could convince me to stay behind."

"The more hands the better," Shiro said. "We'll just have to figure out some disguises for us."

Lance grinned. "Hey, if Olia stood on Hunk's shoulders, they'd make a pretty convincing yupper."

Most of the others groaned, but Olia cocked her head thoughtfully.

"Pidge, could Green manage a cloak long enough to get to the ground and hidden?" Shiro asked.

Pidge tapped a few buttons on her console. "Depends on how hard it will be to find some place to hide her."

"There's caves near the main trading city, where ships are parked. The farthest are always empty, and a few are big enough for a lion."

"It's decided then," Shiro said. "We're going shopping."

* * *

Early the next morning on a nearby planet, the apothecary storekeeper -a plump alien with laugh lines around his jolly face- noticed something unusual in his shop.

There was a tall, petite woman with pale pink skin and furry droopy ears wandering the store. Beside her shuffled a large shape huddled under a cloak. On occasion, a tail would poke out underneath the edge of the cloak.

Curious, the storekeeper started to rearrange some herbs near the unusual pair. He spotted what appeared to be a leash in the woman's hand that led to the cloaked one.

The woman picked up a bundle of herbs and held it close to the cloaked figure. The storekeeper tensed, but the cloaked figure made a motion under the cloak and the woman replaced the herbs.

The storekeeper gave up being subtle and turned to the woman. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

The woman looked at him with a charming smile. "No, thank you. My pet here simply loves herbs, and I'm hoping to find one that appeals to him."

The storekeeper looked more closely at the "pet." There was a muzzle visible under the top of the cloak and a furry paw poked out to pull the cloak tighter.

"Herbs, you say?" The shopkeeper inquired.

"Yup," said the pet in a deep voice.

The shopkeeper threw back his head and laughed. "You have a yupper under there, do you? I didn't know they liked herbs, aside from trampling them."

"Oh, my pet is very fond of them," the woman said.

"I have some better herbs for sweet smelling over there," the shopkeeper said, pointing. "These medicinal herbs don't have much of a scent."

"That is alright," the woman said. "He does prefer the medicinal kind. I'm not sure why myself."

The storekeeper laughed again. "Well, I think I can help you out."

A bit later, the woman was leaving with a bag of medicinal herbs in a pack on the yupper's back and a bag of regular scented herbs over her own arm. She waved in thanks to the shopkeeper, then she and her companion moved into a an empty side street.

"Did we get everything?" the woman asked.

The yupper reached up to push back the cloak hood, revealing Olia. Hunk's face poked out of the lower part of the cloak.

"We sure did," Hunk said gleefully.

"That was easy," Allura said. "Let's head back to Green so the others can get their share."

* * *

The rest of the team split up for supplies, while Allura and Hunk stayed with Keith. Lance was teamed with Matt and Olia to get extra food, Coran and Romelle went for plaster, Pidge and Shiro were going to get supplies for a splint and a new brace, while Krolia would patrol the market between the three groups.

Olia didn't need any disguise since she was known in the market, but even Matt was wearing his face mask with the glowing visor and had his hood drawn up. Lance had molded some clay from Green's landing zone around his ears to make them longer and pointy and had weaved flowers and grass into his hair and stuck twigs throughout his clothes.

Lance gazed around in boredom as Matt and Olia shopped. They knew the stallkeepers they were getting supplies from, and simply called Lance a friend to anyone who asked.

Lance spotted a stall selling small potted plants and wandered over. He crouched to study a plant with bright red berries, then looked up at the stallkeeper.

"Are they edible?" Lance asked.

The stallkeeper, a sleepy-looking Balmaran, shrugged and answered slowly, "Only if you want to breathe fire."

"That would be cool! But, uh, no. Burning your own mouth is the worst," Lance said, moving on to the next plant.

The Balmaran leaned on the table. "Are you from around here?"

"Nope. Passing through." Lance reached to touch a plant, but quickly retracted his finger when the plant tried to _bite_ him. "Picking up food."

"Ah," the Balmaran nodded. He plucked a twig from Lance's sleeve. "Did you spend the night in the forest? There are inns in town, you know."

Lance gave the stallkeeper his best insulted face. "Haven't you heard of the dryad?"

The Balmaran shrugged. Lance drew himself up and took back the twig to replace it.

"Dryad don't sleep in the forest, we _are_ the forest!" Lance said in a haughty tone.

The Balmaran didn't look impressed. "So… you are a tree?"

Lance slumped and mumbled, "Only on the full moon. But we love plants any time of the year." Lance patted a droopy plant. "Be strong, little brother."

"I can't figure out that one," the Balmaran admitted. "Found it on my last shipment. Hasn't bloomed or anything."

"It grows best in darkness," Lance said, having seen the planet on Olkarion. Hunk had made some sort of pie with the berries. It had been a big favorite among the paladins, even Keith, who rarely commented on food. "The berries are some of the best I've tasted."

"If you're a tree… why do you eat other plants?"

Lance blinked, and quickly improvised. "While in this form, I need food like the rest of you. The plants that grow berries and fruit willingly give of their fruit to us."

The Balmaran shrugged and picked up the droopy plant. He studied it for a second, then held it out to Lance. He hesitantly took it, hoping the stallkeeper wouldn't ask him to talk it back to life or something.

"Take it," the Balmaran said.

"Oh, uh, I don't have any GAC. Dryad don't use it," Lance said.

The Balmaran shrugged. "I have no use for a single plant that grows in the dark. At least now it will have someone who understands it."

"Um… thank you." Lance heard Matt call his name. "I have to go. Nice talking to you."

The Balmaran nodded and turned his attention to another alien that had walked up. Lance rejoined Matt and Olia. He couldn't shake his grin for the rest of the trip as he held the little plant tightly.

* * *

Since Coran had an uncanny knowledge of the different plasters of the universe, he had been sent to find the materials for a cast.

He and Romelle had both changed their appearances so they were a head shorter the their normal height. Romelle's hair had changed slightly to resemble long, grey ears, and Coran's ears had become adorable little floppy ears atop his head. Both had furry skin and tiny whiskers. Pompoms that Allura had pulled out of who-knew-where completed the look.

The pair wandered the shops until Coran spotted a promising-looking stall. After telling Romelle to stay put -he had a sense that bartering was a very poor skill for her- Coran strutted over to the stall.

Pouting over being left behind, Romelle turned her attention to the stall that she stood in front of. The table held a variety of stones and crystals. She wandered down the tables, gazing curiously at the stones. She had never seen so many different types before.

Romelle was so distracted by the stones that she didn't notice someone in front of her until she bumped into them.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry," Romelle stammered, backing away.

The person she had bumped into -a blue-haired, blue-skinned woman taller than Romelle in her current disguise- turned and looked down at her. She raised an eyebrow, but just brushed off the apology.

"No harm done," she said, setting down the crystal she had been studying. "You look a little lost."

"Oh, no, I'm with-" Romelle turned, then her eyes widened when she didn't see Coran. "Oh, my, uh, friend is over that way."

The woman's eyes lifted in the direction Romelle was pointing, then back to Romelle. Her expression didn't change.

"You don't say."

Romelle drew herself up and nodded firmly. "I do say. In fact, I had better get back. Nice to meet you."

Romelle turned and walked away without waiting for a response. She figured it would be a simple matter of just following the line of tables until she spotted Coran, but hit a snag when she reached an intersection without seeing Coran.

Romelle stood at the corner, gazing back and forth in confusion. Had she crossed the street, or followed around the corner?

"You still look lost."

Romelle jumped and turned to find the blue-haired woman behind her. She wore a knowing half-smile as she waited for an answer.

"I'm just… shopping," Romelle said.

The woman's smile grew. "What was your companion shopping for?"

"Why?"

"If you tell me, I can point you in the right direction."

Romelle sagged. "Plaster."

"Ah. This way, then," the woman said, crossing the intersection.

"Thanks, but I can take it from here," Romelle said as she trotted up to the woman.

"I'm sure you can," the woman said without stopping.

Romelle huffed, but resigned herself to her companion. She resumed searching for Coran.

"Passing through?" the woman asked nonchalantly.

Romelle figured there was no harm in answering. "Yeah. We just stopped to get some supplies and medicine. You?"

"My friends and I are camping out near here. My friend likes crystals, and I thought she could use some cheering up." The woman indicated the bag she held. "There are no doctors around here. Someone in your group hurt?"

"Yes, but we are handling it" Romelle said shortly. She desperately scanned the crowd for Coran, uncomfortable with answering questions.

"Family?"

Romelle scowled at the woman, who acted like she didn't notice. She faced ahead, not knowing the right way to go about her predicament. She finally decided to just answer.

"No. A friend named Keith."

The woman nodded and stopped. "Pale, black-haired boy? Always carries a knife?"

Romelle halted and gave the woman a genuine smile. "Why, yes! You've met him?"

"A few times," the woman said with a mysterious smile.

The woman reached into her back and pulled out a chunk of grey stone with purple streaks through it. She tossed it to Romelle.

"What is this? A crystal for your friend?" Romelle asked, studying the stone curiously. It wasn't very pretty, aside from the varying shades of purple.

"Isn't that your companion over there?" the woman said instead of answering.

Romelle turned and saw Coran just finishing up with his business. "Oh, it is! Thank you-"

Romelle looked back and found that the blue-haired woman had vanished. She blinked and looked around. She hadn't even gotten the woman's name!

"Ah, Romelle, I've got the plaster."

Romelle turned to Coran, still confused by the woman. Coran cocked an eyebrow at her expression, then noticed the stone still in Romelle's hand.

"Where did you get this?" Coran asked, taking the stone when Romelle held it out. "Why, it's quintite! If we crush the purple ore, we can make a powerful painkiller for Keith that won't have negative effects!"

"A friend of Keith's gave it to me," Romelle said.

"A friend of Keith's? Here? What was their name?"

"I didn't ask," Romelle said sheepishly. "But she had blue hair and skin. Does that help?"

Coran's expression darkened. He tucked away the quintite, and took Romelle's hand to lead her quickly toward the market's exit.

* * *

Shiro knew that he was going to have his hands full with Pidge. They had entered a shop full of mechanical parts, metal, and tools, and Pidge had vanished in an instant. After a fruitless search, Shiro gave up and leaned against the wall to wait Pidge out.

A half hour later, Shiro was staring into space when a disgruntled voice broke into his thoughts.

"Is this one yours?"

Shiro started and looked down at the Unilu shopkeeper. One of his four arms held Pidge's arm, while two of them were crossed. Shiro glanced at Pidge, who had an armload of materials.

Like him, Pidge had allowed her ears to be clayed up into a point. Lance had put together a concoction that had turned Pidge's hair into a brownish-gray, and darkened her skin slightly. Her hair had been pulled back into a tiny ponytail that somehow made her look even younger. Aside from his skin color and ears, Shiro hadn't changed his appearance except to stuff the long right sleeve of the brown shirt he wore with grass, and tucked the fake arm into a sling.

"Yes, she is," Shiro said, smoothly swiping the Unilu's arm away and placing his hand on her shoulder. "What is the problem?"

"I wasn't causing trouble," Pidge muttered.

"Can't have kids wandering wily-nily in my shop," the shopkeeper snapped. "Watch your kid better."

Pidge's eyes widened. "I'm not-"

"You're not in trouble," Shiro said. He looked at the shopkeeper and gave a rueful grin. "My daughter won't cause any more issues. You have any kids?"

"Two girls," the Unilu said, a bit more friendly now.

"Ah, then you know how daughters can be." Shiro lifted his hand to rub his hair. "I think mine is giving me white hair."

The shopkeeper laughed, while Pidge gave Shiro a glare of death. Meanwhile, Krolia had been walking by and had noticed the Unilu's earlier anger. She cautiously approached the group.

"Is there a problem?" Krolia asked.

"No, not now," the Unilu said.

While the shopkeeper was distracted, Shiro realized that Pidge had the most wicked grin he had ever seen on her face as she glanced at him. A second later, her expression turned to wide-eyed innocence as she turned to Krolia.

"No, Mom," Pidge chirped. "Dad and I just finished finding the parts I needed. See?"

Pidge bounced her load a bit, causing the shopkeeper to quickly turn. Shiro was grateful for the distraction, as he and Krolia stared at each other in shock. Luckily, Krolia was quick to recover.

"That's good." Krolia turned to Shiro. "Dear, we must be heading back. I saw Coran, and he said he had something urgent to tell us."

It took all of Shiro's willpower to not gape at Krolia's "dear" to him. He managed a nod, and Krolia pulled the shopkeeper away to pay for the materials.

After a moment, Shiro glanced down at Pidge. She was beaming proudly at him.

"You're quite proud of yourself, aren't you?"

"You brought it on yourself, _Dad_."

"Don't talk to me in that tone of voice, young lady."

* * *

The three groups met up just outside the marketplace. They exchanged stories and showed off what they had gathered. Coran's warning about Axca came as a surprise. Shiro wasn't too worried about her, but he did hurry the team back to Green.

The group was still laughing over Lance's explanation about playing Dryad when they reached Green. Allura was waiting for them, her distraught face causing everyone's laughter to die out.

"He is worse."

The three words had Krolia rushing past them and into Green.

Krolia hadn't thought he could get any more pale, but now her boy is as white as a sheet. His blanket was gone, allowing Krolia to see that his leg was horribly puffy and red.

While Krolia went to Keith's side, the others looked at Hunk. He was standing helplessly beside a table full of bowls and herbs.

"I've tried every trick in the book," Hunk said. "But he has an infection, and he has a fever that keeps rising. The cold medicine is wearing off as quickly as I can give it to him."

"This quintite will help," Coran said, hurrying to Hunk's table. "But we need a real doctor."

"There aren't any here," Matt said.

"Where could we find the nearest planet with a doctor?" Allura asked.

"It's a quintant's travel, and planet is run viciously by the Galra. No one gets in without permission. Besides that one, it would be three quintants, if not more because we can't go fast," Olia responded.

"He doesn't have that long," Krolia said as Keith groaned. "We'll have to make do with what we have here."

"The resistance does have some emergency contacts here," Olia said, glancing at Matt. "I'd say this is an emergency."

Matt nodded. "We'll go see if there is any way to get a resistance doctor here soon."

Shiro stared at him, knowing the risk of Matt going in search of other rebels. He finally nodded, though. Keith needed more than any of them could provide.

Matt and Olia left, leaving promises to be careful and back before dark.

* * *

The rest of the day passed in tense quiet. Krolia, Coran, and Shiro did what they could for Keith, but the wound was only growing worse. The leg grew more inflamed, and pus had started oozing from the cuts.

Matt and Olia returned with grim news that there were no resistance doctors around, and the short conversation they had had with the doctor gave them no new courses of action.

With nothing short of desperation, the team once again ventured into the market for something else to help Keith. But lack of doctors, stronger medicine, and anything resembling a healing pod wiped away any shred of hope.

The team returned to Green, thinking they couldn't feel any lower, when Krolia met them with grim words.

"The infection has set in on the bone."

Everyone stopped their half-hearted camp preparations. Most sat on the ground at the announcement, while Matt and Shiro dropped their faces into their hands. Silence reigned for a long minute, until Krolia spoke again.

"If we do not amputate the leg, it will spread and we will lose Keith."

"If we amputate the leg now, ourselves, with no hospital, Keith will die," Shiro said, raising his head. "Infection, blood loss, be what it is, we aren't prepared."

"If we do nothing, he dies," Krolia shot back. "At least if we do it now, he will only lose half a leg!"

"We can't just do surgery here, in the middle of the jungle," Lance said.

"And where do you suggest? In the middle of the market?" Pidge said.

Matt listened to them argue. While one hand remained over his face, his other toyed with an object inside his cloak that he had found in Green.

"Don't you think he'd kind of protest to us just amputating a limb?" Hunk asked, feeling sick just at the thought of an amputation.

"No, he'd rather we let him die," Olia snapped.

"You don't even know him!" Hunk said.

"Taking away Keith's leg would be like taking the wings of a bird," Shiro said. "Even if he survived, would he want to?"

Matt's hand slapped down to his sides as he yelled, "Enough!"

Everyone jumped and turned to Matt. He thrust his hand out of his cloak to show the object he held. It was an Olkari headpiece.

"We have no choice but to operate. The Olkari taught me tricks. I can amputate the leg and seal the wound."

"And you didn't say this sooner because…?" Pidge asked.

"There was too much risk before. Now, it is either operate or lose Keith completely," Matt said. "We'll deal with the repercussion from Keith once he has recovered."

"What do you need?" Krolia asked.

Matt looked around at the crowded stone cave. "A lot of plants and privacy."

* * *

Everyone loaded into Green to fly further into the forest to avoid anyone wandering in on the operation. They flew until they found a large enough clearing for Green to land in. Keith was carefully transferred deeper into the trees, and laid under a large tree with an abundance of moss and small plants nearby.

Matt surveyed the chosen sight, and finally nodded. There was going to be a lot of moving parts since he was doing the operation alone -there was only one headpiece- and he needed a lot of "hands" to help him. The moss… well, it was pretty absorbent.

"I'll need some light," Matt said while he was coaxing some of the plants closer to Keith.

"We could move him back into the open," Krolia said.

"Can't. If something comes to investigate the smell of blood, I'm going to need something sturdy to protect myself," Matt said. "Which brings me to what you will be doing."

"Protection?" Shiro guessed.

"Where's there's forests, there's wild animals," Matt said. "I have no idea how long this will take, but any interruption…"

"Nothing will get close," Krolia said, a fierce glint in her eyes.

"Then there is no time like the present," Matt said with a grimace. "Coran?"

Coran handed over the medicine for the operation, a powerful mix of Altean cold medicine and quintite. Matt knelt to give Keith the medicine while Shiro sorted the group into teams.

"Go on," Matt said, sitting. "I'll call you when I'm done."

Hunk and Pidge were quick the leave the scene of the upcoming surgery. Lance stared at Keith for a moment before shaking his head and leaving with Coran. Olia gave Matt a sympathetic look, then led Romelle away. Shiro looked at Keith with a pained expression, as if he was the one about to be operated on, but finally walked away. Krolia crouched to grab Keith's hand and give it a tight squeeze, then quickly stood and followed Shiro.

Matt stared after them for a long time, then reluctantly looked at Keith. "Well, I guess it's just you and me now."

* * *

If anyone had asked Matt to describe the operation later, he would have said it was just a blur. As he watched the plants stabilize Keith's leg and he picked up the knife that had been prepared earlier, his mind went into autopilot.

Solely focused on incisions and neat stitches, Matt only glanced away when Keith moved or made a sound. Luckily, the boy never woke up. Matt never noticed the sounds of battle in the woods, the sky going black -the mask he wore had night-vision anyway- or Krolia checking on them.

When Matt finally sat back, wiping his hands furiously on the moss, it was daybreak. He looked at Keith's pale face, watched him breathe, and took his pulse. For an impromptu surgery, Keith was doing about as well as he could expect.

With Keith stable, Matt turned away. He pressed his hands to the ground to stand, then couldn't move. He stared at his stained hands for a long minute before scrambling away from the surgery site and throwing up.

When Matt finally staggered to his feet, he turned his eyes to the brightening sky. He willed the plants to remove the sick as they had with Keith's amputated leg, then turned back to Keith to further check the limb.

Keith's right leg now ended at his knee, where Matt had manipulated a clump of plants full of healing and soothing herbs to cover the stitches.

"O-" Matt choked on the word and had to clear his throat before speaking into his wrist comm again. "Okay. I'm done."

"We'll be right there," Shiro said.

"Okay. No rush. Keith's fine now." Matt coughed. "Could… could somebody bring some water, please?"

* * *

The rest of the team arrived in minutes. Pidge and Hunk wisely stared out of sight. While there wasn't anything to see, just the thought of being at the surgery site made them queasy.

"How did it go?" Matt asked, trying to hide his shaking hands while he cleaned them.

"A few beasts got curious. They aren't an issue now," Krolia said. "How is Keith?"

"See for yourself," Matt invited. "He lost a lot of blood, but the infection hadn't spread past his knee. The wounds are covered properly now, and should heal without any problem. He just needs to be kept still for now."

"Hunk and I found a cave near here!" Pidge called. "It's dry and empty. Should be a good place to lay low until Keith recovers."

"Good idea. In case the infection returns or anything else happens, it would be best to be close to a marketplace to get more supplies," Shiro said.

"Maybe I can get the parts to make a prosthetic for him and you," Pidge said, eager to direct her attention someplace else.

"It will be a few weeks before the leg is healed enough to attach a prosthetic," Matt warned.

Pidge shrugged. "Yeah, well, I can't give him an implant to control it without his permission, either." Pidge crept closer. "Is… he's going to be okay, right?"

"He will be," Krolia answered. She was seated at Keith's side and running a hand through his hair. "He is strong. Just like his father."

* * *

Pidge and Hunk's cave turned out to be perfect. There was only one entrance, so no one and nothing could sneak up on them. It was wide and airy, with a floor of soft dirt and a couple other rooms connected by tunnels. There was even a creek nearby for water, and the clearing that Green hid in wasn't far away.

The team moved into the cave and settled down for however long it took. Bedrolls were moved into the cave, a firepit set up, and the few days' worth of food from Green taken inside.

The first night brought a real scare when two bear-like beasts returned to what must have been their home, but were quickly scared off with torches and yells. The nights that followed were calmer and quiet.

The days fell into routine. Between chores around the cave, patrols of their temporary territory, and the occasional trip into town, the days passed quickly. Each night, one of them would keep watch in shifts while the others gathered around the fire for the night.

For his part, Keith simply slept. He would wake up sometimes, but he was so lucid that it was unlikely he would remember the times later. He started to regain color and the fever left him, allowing everyone to breathe easier. Krolia carried him out to rest in the sun every day, never leaving his side.

Two weeks after the surgery, the wound was healing surprisingly well. Matt had Krolia carry Keith with her to make Keith a prosthetic that took most of the day and left Matt feeling quite proud of himself.

Now, if only Keith would wake up.

* * *

"Is sleeping through recovery a Galra thing or something?"

Lance raised the question two and a half weeks after the surgery. It was evening, and the group had moved outside for dinner. Keith was propped up against the wall, and Krolia was spoon-feeding him -everyone knew that Keith wouldn't live that one down for a good long time- an herb broth. His question got him a few odd looks, then the group turned to Krolia.

"No," Krolia said simply. "Galra have a higher pain tolerance and quicker healing rate than humans, but we don't do it while sleeping. Aren't humans the ones who sleep through illnesses?"

"Sometimes," Lance said. "It depends on the illness and person. I've just never seen Keith sleep so much."

"It could be the amount of Altean medicine in him," Coran said. "He took enough after the bone was set, to keep an adult Altean cold-free for a week!"

"And if a kid's dose can knock him out for a day…." Hunk looked at Pidge.

"A long time," Pidge summarized.

"If he doesn't get to moving soon, there will be a whole new mess of problems," Hunk said.

"I know that. That is why I move him so much during the day," Krolia said.

The group shrugged and nodded. They did have to admit that they found Keith in different positions so often in the daytime from Krolia shifting him around, that they had stopped thinking he was awake when they suddenly found him sitting propped against a wall.

Olia's head tipped up as she sniffed the air. "A storm is coming."

"Let's all get inside," Matt said.

The group quickly finished eating, not wanting to get caught outside in a storm. Hunk and Lance put out the fire, Krolia took Keith into the cave, while the others cleared the fireside.

"Who has first watch?" Lance asked once everyone was inside and Krolia had built up a fire.

"You do," Shiro said. "Then Hunk at midnight. Coran has third watch."

"Anybody want to trade?"

Lance's offer was met with good-natured scoffs. Pidge threw a blanket at his head, which Lance deftly caught and dragged outside.

A bit of the usual scuffling followed as everyone got ready to sleep. Pidge had snatched Matt's blanket, and Shiro had to intervene when Kosmo joined the siblings in wrestling on the ground. Olia dragged Matt away, while a giggling Pidge was threatened with the two watches after Lance if she didn't calm down. Hunk was already asleep since he had the next watch. Krolia was pulled away from fussing with Keith's bedding by Allura, while Romelle managed to beg a story out of Coran.

As it often happened in the last couple weeks, everyone settled down to listen to one of Coran's extravagant stories and drifted off one by one in their normal spots.

Hunk, snoring against the wall near the entrance, had a blanket tossed over him to somewhat muffle his snores. Coran sat against the wall, Allura and Romelle under either arm, still talking. An empty bedroll about a yard from Allura was in place for when Lance's shift ended. Pidge laid on the opposite side of the fire, perpendicular with Keith. As she drifted off, one hand had flung unconsciously over her head and grabbed onto the sleeve of Keith's shirt. A muttering Matt was laying nearby, slowly falling asleep with an already sleeping Olia curled against his back. Krolia leaned against a rock at Keith's head, and was joined by Shiro. Both ran their fingers through Keith's hair until nodding off on each other's shoulder and head.

* * *

A scream woke Krolia.

She snapped awake in an instant, accidentally knocking heads with Shiro. Something slammed into her stomach and she instinctively tried to grab it, but the thing squirmed away.

It took only a second for Krolia to fully wake up, and the first thing that she noticed was that Keith was missing. Pidge was wide awake and already scrambling on her knees, while the others woke up more slowly and with bayards and weapons raising. Hunk barreled inside with his cannon at the ready.

In the next second, Krolia was able to discern that there wasn't enemies in the cave. The scream had come from Keith, who was conscious and crouched unsteadily a few feet away.

"Keith, you're awake," Krolia said, halting everyone else's frantic motions.

Keith was panting hard and crouched on his hands and left leg. His right leg was stretched out behind him, the unwieldy prosthetic throwing him off balance. His purple eyes were wide and vulnerable as they darted around the cave.

Krolia had seen Keith like this before, in the quantum abyss. After the unexpectedness of the first vision, Keith had panicked. A couple times over the course of two years, something similar had happened if a vision caught him unaware.

First things first, Krolia decided, was to get Keith calmed down. She waved a hand at the others, telling them to stay back. As much as they wanted to go to Keith, even Shiro backed off at Krolia's silent command.

"Keith." Krolia said. She waited until Keith's gaze locked on hers. "You're safe. We're in a cave on planet Zinis. Do you remember going to assist the rebel base?"

Keith's expression twisted a bit, and he gave a slow nod. Krolia went on to explain in detail what had happened since they found him on the Galra ship.

While Krolia spoke, the others just stared. They had never seen Keith panic like that, nor had they heard Krolia's soothing, matter-of-the-fact voice. Even the fact of his leg's amputation was presented with the same tone of voice as when she had explained about the market.

Gradually, Keith stopped panting so hard and he lowered himself to his hands and knees. Krolia wrapped up her explanation and waited.

"It's been three movements?" Keith asked, voice raspy from lack of use.

"Just about. You should take it easy," Krolia said. "You've been asleep this whole time."

Keith sat down and drew his legs closer to his body, wincing.

"Does it hurt?" Krolia asked.

Keith shook his head. "Feels… strange. Stiff."

Pidge held out the Olkari headpiece that had fallen from Keith's head in his initial flailing. He had been wearing it since Matt made the prosthetic, hoping that the prosthetic would work as a normal leg for him.

Keith stared at the headpiece uncomprehendingly. While he was calmer now, his eyes were out of focus. Pidge glanced at Krolia for permission, and received a nod. The girl moved carefully forward and placed the headpiece on Keith's head. Keith frowned and turned his eyes up, then reached up to pat at it.

Lance poorly covered up a laugh. "He's so out of it!"

Allura gave Lance a firm look, and he sobered himself. Until Allura turned away, at least. Keith just looked so disoriented that Lance was hoping for a glare to show he was alright. Keith only blinked at him.

The group waited for Keith to try out the prosthetic, but he just stared back at them. Pidge leaned forward and waved a hand in front of his eyes.

"Okay, Lance has a point," Allura said when Keith didn't even blink.

Finally, Keith frowned and pushed Pidge's hand away. He shifted his flesh leg, then looked down as his prosthetic followed suit. He tentatively reached down and touched the wood, then flexed his toes. His eyes glazed further.

"Uh, Krolia?" Hunk said, stepping closer. "You'd better grab Keith, I think he's about to-"

Hunk broke off when Keith swayed. Krolia quickly slid in behind Keith just as the young man's eyes rolled back and he flopped limply into Krolia.

For several minutes, everyone in the cave was quiet. When Keith didn't rouse again, Krolia laid him back on his bedroll.

"Er, was that normal?" Romelle finally said.

"No," Shiro said, while Lance drew out his, "Not re-eally?"

"He's sleeping again," Krolia said simply.

Krolia stretched out beside Keith and closed her eyes, confident that Keith wouldn't wake up for a while. After an awkward silence, the others slowly returned to their sleeping places.

* * *

The next couple days passed with Keith only waking on occasion. He was fairly lucid for the most part, except for a couple times that he woke up and asked for more details on where they were. He still slept most of the time, but it was a natural sleep that was more restless than usual for him.. It wasn't unusual to find him sprawled a couple feet from his bedroll.

No more trips were made to the market during that time. Olia's prediction of a storm had come true the next morning, and it had been raining since. The paladins were to only ones to venture out to patrol and scavenge since their armor kept them dry.

With all the rain, the ground had become boggy. The creek overflowed its banks on the second day, and the paladins spent much of the third building a low wall to redirect any water that happened to flow toward the cave.

With their time cooped up in the cave, Matt and Pidge had made a few basic attachments for Shiro's stub that allowed him to carry things and a claw to pick things up. Hunk experimented with new recipes. Everyone else passed the time with holo-books, clearing out the further reaches of the cave, and stone carving lessons from Coran.

On the fourth day, Keith woke up for real.

* * *

Keith so often woke in starts and yelps that no one noticed him open his eyes. Lance had made some playing cards with leaves and was trying to teach Krolia and the Alteans Go Fish. It wasn't going well.

"For the hundredth time, Coran, 'go fish' means to pick up a card!" Lance seethed.

Coran hesitated from standing. "With a fishing rod?"

"No!" Lance groaned and put his face in his hands. "There are no fishing rods in this game!"

"How else are we supposed to fish?" Romelle asked.

"You know what? I give up!" Lance flung his leaf-cards into the air and turned sulkily away. "I've tried to teach you but- oh, hey, Keith's awake again!"

Everyone -except for Shiro and Pidge who were out scouting- turned to Keith to see him watching them. He gave them a smile and worked himself up onto his elbows. Krolia went to him and helped him sit up fully. For the first time since the injury, his eyes were completely clear and focused.

"How do you feel?" Krolia asked.

Keith shrugged. "I'm fine."

Lance smirked. "And he's back to normal."

Keith briefly scowled at Lance, furthering his point.

"Do you feel like eating?" Krolia asked. They had been encouraging Keith to eat while he was conscious, as the already skinny young man had only gotten thinner since his injury.

Keith nodded almost self-consciously. Krolia grabbed one of their bowls and ladled out some soup from the pot kept beside the fire for that purpose. Krolia offered the bowl with a spoon to Keith, knowing he wouldn't want to be spoon-fed while he was coherent. Keith's hands shook a bit when he held the bowl, but everyone ignored the broth that sloshed onto his fingers while he carefully ate.

"Where's Shiro and Pidge?" Keith asked when he was halfway through the soup.

"Out checking the perimeter with Kosmo," Krolia said.

Keith scanned the cave. After a long moment, he said, "We're in a different cave."

"Just further in," Krolia said, pleased that Keith was able to notice the difference. "It started raining after you first woke up, and the first section of the cave was starting to gather water."

"There's puddles now," Pidge said, suddenly scampering into the cave. "Oh, hey, Keith!"

Pidge shook herself and hurried over to plop down beside Keith, earning a smile. Shiro followed more slowly, eyes grim.

"The creek has reached the wall," Shiro said.

"That's a yard away from the entrance," Allura said. She stood. "We should reinforce the wall."

The paladins in casual clothes quickly suited up. Pidge regretfully left Keith and followed the others.

When he saw the paladins leaving, Keith set aside the bowl and leaned forward to stand. Krolia put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back.

"You are staying here," Krolia said.

Keith frowned. "I can help."

"You can't even stand."

"Yes, I can."

To prove his point, Keith shifted to his knees. Krolia let him this time. Keith pushed his feet under him, and used Krolia's shoulder to fully stand. Krolia watched him, a bit surprised that he had gotten that far.

Keith took a moment to steady himself. He let go of Krolia and focused his determined gaze on the cave entrance. He lifted his right leg, but his left leg promptly shook and gave out. He fell to his knees. Krolia reached out to help him, but Keith shoved her hands away.

"I can do it!" Keith insisted.

And he did. Briefly. After five attempts, Keith managed two steps before he fell and his shaking limbs wouldn't let him try again.

Krolia watched her son struggle, feeling pride at his accomplishment and frustration at his stubbornness. Her husband had always accused her of being stubborn, and the trait had passed to Keith.

Glad that Coran, Romelle, Matt, and Olia had retreated to the front part of the cave, Krolia stood and went to Keith's side. She crouched and listened to his panting for a minute before speaking.

"It will take some time, Keith," Krolia said. "Don't hurt yourself from trying too hard."

"It hurts." Keith's head was ducked so Krolia couldn't see his face, but it sounded like he was speaking through gritted teeth.

"What hurts?"

"My foot." Keith barked out a laugh. "My foot that isn't there, but it _hurts._ "

"You can feel something that is gone?" Krolia asked. She had never heard of someone suffer from anything like that. Could Keith still feel his amputated leg?!

"Humans call it phantom pain." Keith grabbed his wooden foot and kneaded it. "How did Shiro hold it all in?"

"All pain eases with time," Krolia said. She put a hand on his shoulder. "This one will as well." At least, she hoped. She'd have to ask Shiro.

Keith huffed out a groan. He tipped his face toward the roof, eyes clenched shut and teeth bared. His entire body was tensed.

Krolia sighed. She leaned forward to give Keith a rare hug. He started when Krolia pulled him close. After a second, he wrapped his arms around her.

The pair stayed like that for a while, Krolia feeling Keith relax. Keith's breath evened out and his chin fell on Krolia's shoulder. Krolia thought he had fallen back asleep, but then there was a murmur beside her ear.

"Thanks, Mom."

Krolia smiled. "Anytime… son."

Keith hummed in contentment. Krolia leaned back from Keith and saw he was well on his way to falling asleep again.

"Sleep," Krolia ordered gently, laying Keith back down.

Keith grunted and shifted. "The blanket's wet."

Krolia felt the bedroll. It was damp. She felt the dirt around them and found it damp as well. Just then, Matt ran into the room. Right behind him was a shallow wave of water.

"We lost the barrier wall," Matt said, skidding to a muddy halt. "We have to go."

Krolia scooped up Keith before the water reached his bed. He yelped, starting awake.

"What's going on?"

"We have to evacuate," Krolia said.

Krolia started for the door, but the dirt underfoot was slick. She slipped, Matt steadying her before she could fall.

"Put his legs down and we can support him on either side," Matt said.

Krolia did as Matt had said, throwing Keith's arms over either of their shoulders. Mostly dragging Keith, the two was able to wade through the deepening water into the main cave, where everyone else had gathered.

It was daytime, but there was next to no light from the entrance. The fire had gone out in the ankle-deep water, so the only light came from the paladins' helmets.

"Grab what you can!" Shiro was ordering when the trio entered. Shiro glanced at them. "Get Keith out of here before the water gets deeper."

"Kosmo!" Krolia called. The wolf, standing rigid at the entrance, glanced back. "Take Keith to Green!"

Kosmo barked and darted toward Keith, but was swept off his paws went a larger wave surged into the cave. Pidge, her back to the wave, was knocked into Romelle and both girls fell. Lance was nearly knocked over, but Hunk caught him in time. Matt and Krolia braced themselves as the knee-high wave struck them, and managed to stay upright.

Shiro hauled Pidge, then Romelle out of the water and to their feet. He pushed them closer to Keith.

"How many people can Kosmo take?" Shiro asked.

Kosmo stood and barked twice.

"Two?" Keith said with a shrug.

"Take Romelle with you, then. The rest of us will get there on foot," Shiro said.

Keith's eyes widened. "What? No, Kosmo should take Romelle and someone else."

"I can't believe you are arguing right now," Lance grumbled as he found his footing. "We'll be right behind you."

With obvious hesitation, Keith nodded. Kosmo reached Romelle's side and leaned against her. Keith let go of Matt and put out his hand for Romelle to grab. He glanced at Krolia, who nodded as she released him.

Kosmo started to glow, then an even bigger wave knocked into him. Kosmo slammed into Romelle, making her release Keith and stumble into Pidge. Light flashed, then Kosmo, Romelle, and Pidge vanished. Keith was knocked to the ground, briefly submerging before Krolia grabbed his arm and jerked him upright. His prosthetic was dead weight. When Keith looked around frantically, he saw Matt with the Olkari headpiece on his wrist while he dragged Olia to her paws.

The water was nearly to Keith's waist at that point. Shiro shook his head as the team struggled back to their feet.

"We have to go now!"

Everyone sloshed for the entrance, only to be knocked back by another wave that threw half of them to the floor. Kosmo appeared in the middle of the wave, and was thrown into a wall. He vanished with a yelp, and didn't reappear.

"Come on!" Shiro went to Krolia's side to help with Keith. "Before the next wave!"

Lance grabbed Allura to help her stand. Now that Lance was anticipating the water, he was the most stable of the group. Hunk helped stabilize Coran, and Matt had his hands full with a struggling Olia.

"Where did all this water come from?" Allura asked in frustration.

"The river that connects to the creek. There were a couple dams," Lance said. He swallowed. "They're breaking."

By then, Hunk had dragged Coran to the entrance. He poked his head out, then yelled, "Wave!"

Everyone braced themselves, but Matt, Olia, Coran, and Hunk still went down. Keith's feet were swept up and Krolia slid, but Shiro fired his jetpacks to press forward so none of them fell.

"Go!" Shiro yelled.

Everyone slogged as quickly as they could through the waist-high water. The group reached the entrance, and their helmet lights illuminated the largest wave yet approaching.

In the split-moment of everyone freezing in horror, there was a massive roar. A pair of blue-white paws slammed down in front of the wave, blocking the cave temporarily.

"Blue!" Allura cried in relief.

Blue's head ducked down. She opened her mouth and everyone scrambled aboard. Blue's jaw clamped shut.

The group collapsed to the ground, panting. Allura eventually stood and headed for the cockpit, while Shiro checked in with Pidge. She, Romelle, and Kosmo were safe in Green. Olia bounded out of the remaining puddles in search of a towel.

Krolia stood, letting Keith sit and rest. She surveyed what they had managed to scavenge, and realized what little they had time to grab had been swept away. Luckily, all the paladins were already suited up, or else their armor would have been lost. As it was, Keith's armor was now gone -helmet on a Galra cruiser, and the intact body armor sure to be swept away.

"Well, we lost our supplies in the cave," Shiro said, echoing Krolia's thoughts. "But we have more in Yellow, and we are all safe."

Hunk groaned as he sat up. He shook his head, then stood and helped Coran and Lance stand. Matt stood, returning the headpiece before he went after Olia; wet Caneen stunk more than wet dog, so Olia's drying off took priority for him.

Keith replaced the headpiece and found his prosthetic hadn't taken any damage. He got his knees under him to stand, then lifted his head and saw two hands in front of him. He glanced up and saw Krolia and Shiro both offering a hand.

Keith hesitated for a moment, then smiled and took their hands.

* * *

 **A/N: The ending is symbolic, or something, I don't know! Unlike the other chapters, I realized too late that I didn't have a particular scene to end off the chapter. So, I'm ending it with Keith awake and accepting help. Some more on Keith's recovery and his getting used to the prosthetic will be featured in Keith's chapter of the upcoming _Holdin' On._**

 **lance's variation of "if he dies, I'll kill him myself" is courtesy of Gravtron1.**

 **For those people who have been following all my updates, I will be continuing to write for Voltron. The whole kit and caboodle explanation will be on my profile for one week.**


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